On Saturday I had the opportunity to play probably my favorite symphony of all, and as long as we're talking about our inspirations I thought I should post a great performance of it here.

This symphony is just fun. There are memorable melodies in every movement, and plenty of drama without getting bombastic or long-winded. Borodin composed it while he was also working on his opera Prince Igor, which takes place in Central Asia, so not surprisingly it takes a lot of inspiration from the music of that region.