In the final decades of the nineteenth century, as waves of nationalism swept across Europe, a bold circle of Russian composers known as the Mighty Five set out to forge a new musical language rooted in the soil, faith, and folklore of their homeland. Rejecting polished Western formulas, they infused their works with peasant song, Orthodox chant, tolling church bells, shifting meters, exotic scales, and the oriental colors of the Eurasian Steppe. This month features two of the most beloved works in the orchestral repertoire: Mussorgsky’s bold, vivid realism in Pictures at an Exhibition and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, whose captivating violin theme draws us into the world of The Arabian Nights, carrying us upon surging sea waves of luminous orchestral colors.