Alpesh Chauhan’s début recording for Chandos – Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 (CHSA 5300) – met with widespread critical acclaim and awards, including recording of the week for both The Times and Presto Music, and the BBC Music magazine’s Orchestral Choice. This second volume – with the same forces – offers equally crisp and attentive playing from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, in another album that mixes well-known and less-heard Tchaikovsky. Three purely orchestral works form the core of the programme: Fatum (an early concert piece inspired by and dedicated to Balakirev), Hamlet (the last of his Shakespeare-inspired pieces), and Capriccio italien. These are interspersed with works conceived for the theatre: the Introduction to his opera The Queen of Spades and excerpts from The Oprichnik (an early opera) and The Snow Maiden (incidental music for a play by Ostrovsky).
Air Born: The MCA & Decca Years 1973-1984 is a new box set featuring the music of English prog-rock band Camel. The box features 27 CDs & five blu-rays and includes newly remastered versions of every Camel album and single issued between 1973 and 1984, but also includes new stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound versions of five albums, as well as new mixes of three concerts; The Marquee Club, London 1974, Hammersmith Odeon 1976 and Hammersmith Odeon 1977. The package also features previously unreleased outtakes from album recording sessions and BBC Radio ‘In Concert’ appearances from 1974, 1975, 1977 and 1981.
Features the high-fidelity SHM-CD format (compatible with standard CD player). Cover artwork faithfully replicates original one. Comes with lyrics and a description. Camel was still finding its signature sound on its eponymous debut album. At this point, Peter Bardens and his grand, sweeping organ dominate the group's sound and Andrew Latimer sounds tentative on occasion.