| Marketing Copy | First written in 1868 by a young Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908), this orchestral suite was originally titled his SYMPHONY No. 2 by the composer, though it was always a programmatic telling of the 'Antar' story. After numerous revisions, Rimsky-Korsakov determined to no longer refer to the work as a symphony at all, but rather as a suite, saying, "The term 'suite' was then unfamiliar [when he initially wrote the work] to our circle in general, nor was it in vogue in the musical literature of western Europe. Still, I was wrong in calling 'Antar' a symphony. My 'Antar' was a poem, suite, fairy-tale, story, or anything you like, but not a symphony. Its structure in four separate movements was all that made it approach a symphony." This confusion and arguments with the publisher about revisions to the plates resulted in four different versions. This version from 1897 is the third, though it remained unpublished until 1913. It is thought to be the version most reflective of the composer's final thoughts on the work, referring to it as a "symphonic suite" rather than a symphony for the first time. (The version from 1903 is not considered final as the publisher refused to make significant alterations to the 2nd or 1875 plates with the 1897 revisions, resulting in a compromise between the publisher and composer for the final iteration.) Instrumentation: 3(3dPicc).2(2dEH).2.2: 4.2.3.1: Timp.Perc(3-4): Hp: Str (9-8-7-6-5 in set). |
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