The Night They Killed “Scheherazade”

It happened during the third movement of Rimsky-Korsakov’s romantic masterpiece.

On Friday night, December 29, 2023, The Minnesota Orchestra was playing the 3rd movement of “Scheherazade” (“The Young Prince and Princess”) in all its colorful, evocative glory, when suddenly an announcer at KSJN-FM interrupted the broadcast — at almost exactly at 8:00 PM.

OMG! Was another AMBER Alert being issued? Was The National Weather Service issuing a freak tornado warning? Was the concert halted because of some terrorist threat? Did a fire break out? Did the guest conductor collapse at the podium?

No. No to all of these unexpected emergencies.

There was just a typical station ID — KSJN FM — and a little, non-threatening weather forecast, then dead air…Dead air that lasted a few minutes. Then it was back to another announcer at the station’s home base in St. Paul — not at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis.

It was as if this heavily promoted broadcast touted as the orchestra’s New Year’s Eve Concert on Friday night had never taken place or been aired.

So what, exactly, had happened?

So why did this broadcast end right in the middle of this symphonic poem? Depending on the conductor and her chosen dynamic, this entire musical work could have lasted about 45 minutes in total. Furthermore, the entire concert broadcast was supposed to have lasted from 7 to 9 PM. Why did it end a little after 8 PM, CST?

Why suddenly and conspicuously stop in the middle of what many consider to be Rimsky-Korsakov’s magnum opus?

Probably because it was a repeat of a concert program from Friday, December 30, 2022, and Saturday, December 31, 2022 — NOT 2023. In all the promos aired on KSJN-FM for the past week, though, 2023 kept being mentioned. As in “New Year’s Celebration from 2023.” Hmmm. When there’s a New Year’s Celebration for 2023, does it take place in 2023 or 2022?

Yeah, it’s a silly-ass little thing, but stay with me on this one, dear readers.

It reminds me of 12 AM and 12 PM. If you say 12 noon, you know the time is going to be in the daytime, between morning and afternoon. If you say 12 midnight, you know the time is going to be late at night, between late night and very early morning. But for some reason, people refuse to say 12 noon or 12 midnight. Hence the confusion.

So this year-old concert that aired was really a repeat from the year 2022. It might have been a celebration for the New Year of 2023; BUT, when these musical celebrations on December 30th and 31st took place, they happened in 2022, NOT in 2023.

Anyway, any radio station that broadcasts classical music has no business whatsoever interrupting what is arguably Rimsky-Korsakov’s magnum opus. Don’t let it happen again, KSJN-FM.

By the way, Happy New Year for 2024, not 2023, not 2022.