Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto / Symphony No. 3 in A minor 'scottish' / Hebrides Overture

Hybrid/SACD Playable on all SACD players

"Lack[s] nothing in attack or passion but benefit[s] in clarity of detail from the chamber size of the ensemble and the superb recording standards befitting this label."
The Observer

Formed in 1974 with a commitment to serve the Scottish community, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra is one of Scotland 's foremost cultural ambassadors, touring regularly in the Far East, Europe and the USA . The Orchestra is internationally recognised for its innovative approach to music-making and programme planning. Its winter season includes concerts in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, St Andrews, Perth, Dumfries, Ayr and Inverness.

It also undertakes annual Highlands and South of Scotland tours and has played in over a hundred small communities across Scotland. It appears regularly at the Edinburgh International Festival, the BBC Proms and the St Magnus (Orkney) and Aldeburgh Festivals. Its busy international touring schedule has recently included the USA, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands, Sweden and Hong Kong.

The Orchestra enjoys close relationships with many leading composers and has commissioned more than eighty new works, including pieces by Composer Laureate Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, James MacMillan, Lyell Cresswell, Haflidi Hallgrímsson and Einojuhani Rautavaara. The SCO recently collaborated with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in a four-year programme of joint commissions from Composers-in-Residence Sally Beamish and Karin Rehnqvist.

The 2004/05 Season was the ninth year of the Orchestra's fruitful partnership with Principal Conductor Joseph Swensen. From September 2005, Swensen will continue to work with the SCO as the Orchestra's first-ever Conductor Emeritus. The concerts he conducted during 2004/05 reflected some of the hallmarks of his time with the SCO including inspirational interpretations of Beethoven, championing new music, building associations with the finest soloists and playing the violin. In the last two years, Swensen and the SCO have released four CDs together through the Orchestra's partnership with Linn Records, of music by Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Brahms and Prokofiev.

The SCO's close relationship with Conductor Laureate Sir Charles Mackerras has resulted in many successful recordings, including the recently released disc of Kodály and Bartók, a Grammy-nominated set of Brahms symphonies, six Mozart operas (including Grammy-nominated Idomeneo, which was recorded at the 2001 Edinburgh International Festival), Beethoven's Fidelio, symphonies by Schubert, and Brahms' serenades. The fourth in a series of CDs of Mozart Piano Concertos with Sir Charles, Alfred Brendel and the Orchestra was recorded in August on the Philips label. A recording of Mozart's Il Seraglio for Antelope Films/Telarc by Sir Charles, the SCO and the SCO Chorus was released in 2000 and is the soundtrack of the film Mozart in Turkey . They have also recorded Mozart's Requiem together for Linn Records, which was released in 2004.