Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) was one of a handful of Russian composers who endeavored to write music in a pure, distinctly Russian way. This group, known as "The Mighty Five," or simply "The Five,"were self taught, and proudly so! They believed in spontaneity, "truth in music," and nationalism above all. They felt they were true Russian composers, unlike their conservatory colleagues, (including Tchaikovsky!) whom they considered the enemy, steeped in German influence and "learned" traditions.

Rimsky-Korsakov joined the group in 1861 when he was 18 years old and an officer in the Russian navy In 1871 he accepted an appointment at the St. Petersburg

Conservatory, much to his colleagues disgust. Even though he had achieved success as a composer, he was well aware of his own ignorance, and he studied furiously to remain one step ahead of his students. In time, he became a fine teacher and wrote a famous textbook on orchestration. When he died in 1908, it was just two years before the earth-shaking premiere of The Firebird by his most famous pupil, Igor Stravinsky.

The Tales of the Arabian Nights (or The Thousand and One Nights) is a collection of over 200 stories about a host of famous characters including Aladdin, Ali Baba and Sinbad the Sailor. Scheherazade is a clever young woman who tells the tales in order to thwart the king, Shahriyar. After his first wife proves unfaithful, Shahriyar vows to marry a different maiden each night and to have each one beheaded the next day. Scheherazade's tales are so spellbinding that he allows her to live each morning so that she can finish the current story that night. Eventually, of course, he falls in love with her and rescinds his brutal edict.

Rimsky-Korsakov wrote his Symphonic Suite after 'A Thousand and One Nights' in 1888, the same year as his famous Russian Easter Overture. In his memoirs, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote: "I had in view the creation of an orchestral suite in four movements, closely knit by the community of its themes and motives, yet presenting, as it were, a kaleidoscope of fairy-tale images and designs of Oriental character."

He originally wrote subtitles describing each of the four movements, but later felt they created too specific a program for the music. He eventually had them deleted from later editions of the score, but they are usually printed in programs anyway, since audiences appreciate them as an insight into his original conceptions.