The Starlight Express was adapted from a book by Algernon Blackwood, A Prisoner in Fairyland, for a theatre production in the West End during the First World War, with music by Sir Edward Elgar. Combining the usually contrasting elements of fairytale and melodrama, The Starlight Express depicts the fantasy world inhabited by a group of children, who possess a magical ‘starlight’ quality that has been lost by the adults around them. This is the most comprehensive recorded version of The Starlight Express to date, based on a new score prepared by the Elgar Edition, which has been adapted by the conductor Sir Andrew Davis.

Following their much-praised Schubert recording (‘the most thrilling account of Schubert’s last symphony’, BBC Music Magazine), Maxim Emelyanychev and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra are reunited for their highly anticipated second album on Linn, this time performing Mendelssohn’s Symphonies Nos. 3 & 5. Inspired by the natural beauty of Scotland – and what better way to celebrate SCO’s 50th anniversary in 2023 than the ‘Scottish’ Symphony! – No. 3 has a fiery character well suited for the ‘dynamic, energetic and exciting to watch’ conductor Maxim (The Guardian). Despite its numbering, No. 5 (known as the ‘Reformation’) is an early work which evokes the struggles and triumph of Protestantism. Its final chorale based on Luther’s much celebrated ‘Ein feste Burg’ draws the album to a reaffirming end.

Icelandic composer Haflidi Hallgrímsson began his career as a cellist and was the principal cellist with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra before retiring to devote himself to composition. It's especially fitting, then, that the Scottish Chamber Orchestra plays two of his works for cello and orchestra on this CD, his Herma (1995) and Cello Concerto (2003). Hallgrímsson wrote the concerto for featured soloist Truls Mørk, who has performed it, as well as Herma, many times.

Twenty years ago musicologists were not aware that Schubert's Tenth existed. The detective story leading to its revelation is told by Brian Newbould in the booklet of this CD. The manuscript was discovered in a folio in Vienna containing no fewer than three uncompleted Schubert symphonies including No 10, which the composer was working on when he died. It is therefore his very last music. Professor Newbould's work involved deciphering Schubert's sketches and then reconstructing the work and orchestrating it. In three movements, the symphony is a wonder, with a first movement containing one of Schubert's loveliest melodies, and a sombre and Mahlerian slow movement of great poignancy.

Mackerras’s series of opera recordings, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, has a character very much its own, deriving from his natural feeling for the dramatic pacing of Mozart’s music and the expressive and allusive nature of its textures, as well as the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s sensitivity and responsiveness to him. These are not period-instrument performances (except in that natural horns and trumpets are used, to good effect), but Mackerras’s manner of articulation, and the lightness of the phrasing he draws from his strings, makes it, to my mind, a lot closer to a true period style than some of the performances that make a feature of period instruments and then use them to modern ends (I am thinking less here of British conductors than some from Europe).

For her first recording on the Linn label, Ingrid Fliter performs the two piano concertos of Frédéric Chopin with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Jun Märkl, and both performances are presented in the hybrid SACD format. The multichannel treatment might seem excessive for these works, since the piano part is always clear and prominent, and the orchestration isn't dense or complicated. Even so, the myriad subtleties of dynamics, attacks, and phrasing come across with exceptional clarity and effectiveness in the state-of-the-art recording, which does a great service to Fliter and the orchestra.

Schumann: The Symphonies sees Robin Ticciati and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra embark upon their first symphonic cycle together in a programme that they performed in concerts across Scotland. This is music that is very close to Robin Ticciati's heart; he describes Schumann as one of his favourite composers and has often spoken about how important poetry, colour and story are to Schumann's music.

Composer, conductor, administrator, impresario, creative writer, acid critic, sometime painter, aspiring philosopher, classical symphonist, opera romantic, profound nationalist … blessed with the melodic flowering of a Mozart, the technical facility of a Mendelssohn … a man, conscious of his genius, ‘always honest and selfless in his dealings with his fellow men and with the art he loved’ (Autobiographical Sketch, Dresden, 14 March 1818) … put on a pedestal by all the post-Beethovenites, the inspiration of Mahler and Debussy, of Hindemith and Stravinsky: Carl Maria von Weber was, by universal consent, a great pianist in an age of great virtuosi.

Charles Mackerras’ marvelous recordings of Brahms’ four symphonies with these same forces for Telarc find a logical successor in this delightful release of the two early serenades. These are special works in Brahms’ output: carefree, breezy, and charming. The unusual freshness and clarity of their orchestration (the Second Serenade scored without violins) shows that the density of his symphonic sound clearly was a matter of intention rather than accident, or worse, lack of skill. Hearing these loosely constructed, generously tuneful pieces, we can only wonder at the effort Brahms must have made to curb his purely lyrical impulses and discipline his musical thought in such a way as to demonstrate his worthiness as symphonic heir to Beethoven.

This recording of Così fan tutte was made when the cast was preparing for performances at the 1993 Edinburgh Festival, so the cast had the advantage of enough rehearsal time together to relax into the opera's humor. Their easy rapport is most evident in the spirited recitatives, which sparkle with spontaneity and wit. The fact that the principals are talented comedians makes their unforced interactions genuinely fun, and they sound like they are thoroughly enjoying themselves. Although they are not all international superstars, the performances are stellar. The soloists bring out the humanity and complexity of the opera, and artfully convey their characters' emotional development.

Director Alexander Janiczek proves the perfect choice to direct the music of his fellow Austrian as he delivers a superb performance in this, his second, recording with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

This is the second fine Don Giovanni we have had within the past year. Like Gardiner (Archiv), Mackerras includes every note Mozart wrote for both the original Prague version and the Viennese revival. Moreover, it is easier than ever for listeners to ‘programme in’ their preferred version: all Prague die-hards have to do is to bypass Don Ottavio’s ‘Dalla sua pace’ in Act I – a beautiful aria, in all conscience, though it holds up the dramatic action at a crucial stage. By coaxing a modern orchestra into a real awareness of period style, Mackerras seems to have the best of both worlds: the playing has admirable liveliness and intensity, and there are none of the intonation problems that so often plague actual period instruments.

The multi-award-winning partnership of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Sir Charles Mackerras is reunited in this second collection of Mozart Symphonies featuring Nos. 29, 31 ('Paris'), 32, 35 ('Haffner') & 36 ('Linz'). This much anticipated recording follows on from the astounding success of Mozart: Symphonies 38-41 which resulted in Mackerras and the SCO winning the Critics' Award at the 2009 BRIT Awards and led to Mozart: Symphonies 38-41 being named 'Disc of the Year' at the 2009 BBC Music Magazine Awards.

In his debut recording with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra oboist François Leleux celebrates his dual roles of conductor and soloist as he directs performances of Bizet and Gounod.