The suite is in four movements: Antar is scored for an orchestra consisting of 3 flutes (3rd doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd doubling cor anglais), 2 clarinets in A and B♭, 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 2 trumpets in A and B♭, 3 trombones, 2 tubas, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, tambourine, tam-tam, triangle, snare drum, 2 harps, and strings.

This work was inspired by an Arabian tale by Sennkovsky,[2] suggested to Rimsky-Korsakov by Modest Mussorgsky and César Cui.

As a reward, she permits Antar to fulfill three of life's greatest joys — vengeance, power and love.

As Hector Berlioz did in his Symphonie fantastique, Rimsky-Korsakov employs an idée fixe or motto theme in various guises through all four movements to depict Antar.

However, he never changed this numbering even after redesignating Antar a suite, and he continued calling the C major Symphony his Third in his autobiography, My Musical Life.

Balakirev did not approve of how Rimsky-Korsakov had written the exposition of his themes but did not give concrete suggestions or solutions on how to proceed.

As a result, Rimsky-Korsakov lost interest in the project: "I repeat I was disappointed in my musical offspring and soon abandoned or postponed indefinitely the idea of writing a second symphony.

[10] He was also pleased overall with the orchestration of Antar, which he described as being "full of colour and fancy", mentioning especially his use of flutes, clarinets and harp in their lower registers.

[11] He scored the initial appearance of the "Antar" theme to violas to please Mussorgsky since he was especially fond of the instrument.

[11] Because of Rimsky-Korsakov's continued revisions on Antar and difficulty with the publisher Bessel, textual complications are both rife and hopelessly confusing.

[12] Minor changes between the three main versions (1868, 1875 and 1897) include tempo markings, dynamic nuances and modifications of scoring.

[12] Hector Berlioz paid his final visit to Russia between November 1867 and February 1868 to conduct six concerts of the Russian Musical Society.

[15] As was their practice at that time, other members of the nationalists' circle readily helped Rimsky-Korsakov in composing Antar.

The autograph copy of this melody with Dargomyzhsky's harmonization is preserved in the Houghton Library of Harvard University.

[19] In telling the story of Antar, which is set in the East (Arabia), Rimsky-Korsakov highlights two different styles of music, Western (Russian) and Eastern (Arabian).

He does not allow either the story or its musical depiction to become overtly misogynistic, as Balakirev later would with his symphonic poem Tamara.

[18] With Gul Nazar extinguishing Antar's life in a final embrace, the woman overcomes the man.

[18] Though now eclipsed by Scheherazade in popularity, Antar was performed fairly frequently during the composer's lifetime, several times under his direction.

[20] Hans von Bülow also tried to remove himself from performing Antar, though this may have been due more to the conductor's famous irascibility than to the piece itself.

Yevgeny Svetlanov, Sir Thomas Beecham, Konstantin Ivanov, Kees Bakels and Jiří Bělohlávek have all recorded the real 1897 version.

It was performed by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Ernest Ansermet and released by Decca Records in 1954.