Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade is one of the most popular suites in the entire orchestral canon. The work’s imperishable melodies and sonorities were an influence on Stravinsky and have been referred to by innumerable cinema composers ever since. The musical narrative draws on The Arabian Nights, appealing to the imagination with its haunting beauty and enchantingly exotic atmosphere. The entire world of Bedřich Smetana’s beloved opera The Bartered Bride is captured in the Overture, the rousing nature of its dances a further celebration of Czech national resurgence in the 19th century.

Founded in 1880, the St Louis Symphony is the second-oldest orchestra in the United States and is widely considered one of the world’s finest. Recordings by the symphony have been honoured with numerous Grammy awards and nominations over the years. Violin soloist (Scheherazade) Max Rabinovitsj was concertmaster of the St Louis Symphony and is well known throughout the US and Europe as a performer and educator, and also for founding the St Louis String Quartet.

Jerzy Semkow (Rimsky-Korsakov) was music director of the St Louis Symphony Orchestra from 1975 to 1979, also recording for the Vox/Turnabout label with the Royal Danish Orchestra. A native of Czechoslovakia, Walter Susskind (Smetana) was a leading conductor in the UK just after the Second World War, performing throughout Europe as an acclaimed guest conductor. He held the post of Music Director of the St Louis Symphony Orchestra from 1968 to 1975.

The Elite Recordings for Vox by legendary producers Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz are considered by audiophiles to be amongst the finest sounding examples of orchestral recordings.

This Vox Audiophile Edition recording was first released in 1975 in quadraphonic sound as LP cat. QTV-S 34619-20 and in 1976 as QTV-S 34667, and it joins our re-release with the St Louis Symphony Orchestra of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto and other orchestral works conducted by Walter Susskind on VOX-NX3034CD. Further St Louis Symphony Orchestra recordings in this edition include Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony conducted by Leonard Slatkin (VOX-NX-3013CD), with plenty more to come in the near future.