Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade (1888) The story of classical music in nineteenth-century Russia is extraordinary; it went from backward beginnings to a remarkable powerhouse of talent, training and ideas. A critical figure in this process was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, whose textbook of orchestration showed what could be done when instruments were combined in a new and brilliant way. How did his approach differ from the Western European orthodoxy; what are the defining characteristics of this new Russian sound? With a copy of the score of the evocative orchestral suite Scheherazade in one hand, and Rimsky's legendary textbook "Principles of Orchestration" in the other, Sandy aims to find out.