Alexander Borodin: Music from “Kismet“

Alexander Borodin (1833-1887), Россия Robert Wright and George Forrest created the classic musical “Kismet“ in 1953, based on a 1911 play by Edward Knoblock. Set in Baghdad in A.D. 1071, the story tells how the clever poet Hajj follows his “Kismet“ - his “Fate“ - by defeating the evil Wazir (police chief), by helping his daughter to marry his beneficent Caliph, and by going off at the final curtain with one of the Baghdad’s greatest beauties. This medley comprises excerpts from Borodin’s original works upon which several of the “Kismet“ finest songs were based: Symphony No. 2, Movement 1 (Fate); In the Steppes of Central Asia (Sands of Time); String Quartet No. 2, Movement 3 (And This Is My Beloved); Symphony No. 1, Movement 1 (Gesticulate); String Quartet No. 2, Movement 2 (Baubles, Bangles, and Beads); Overture to Prince Igor (The Olive Tree); Serenade (subtitled Dreaming of a Love Song) from the Petite Suite (Night of My Nights); and the Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor (He’s in Love, Stranger in Parad