Orchestral Favourites

Classical hits from one of the world's great orchestras: a fabulous introduction to the world of music at a super-budget price.

Zadok the Priest was written in 1727 for the Coronation of King George II, but it's now more familiar to millions of football fans as the anthem for the Champions League. You may never have listened to a Wagner opera, but if you've seen Apocalypse Now, you'll know The Ride of the Valkyries. Composing a slow movement for a string quartet, Samuel Barber could hardly have imagined that his Adagio would tap so deeply into universal feelings of grief and reflection once it had become known as his Adagio for strings and used in countless TV programmes and film soundtracks. Classical music is everywhere, and on this 4CD set you can enjoy more than 40 of the most thrilling and powerful pieces ever written.

The music in this collection is full of stories. A misty sea voyage off the coast of Scotland (The Hebrides, by Mendelssohn); a dazzling Russian coronation scene (The Great Gate of Kiev, by Mussorgsky); a young woman comforting her old father (O mio babbino caro, by Puccini); a dawn over Egypt (Morning Mood, by Grieg) as well as a display of the Egyptian empire in all its glory (Triumphal March, by Verdi) and all its brutality (Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, also by Verdi).

Great music transcends place and time. Sibelius wrote Finlandia to marking his country's new independence, Elgar was celebrating the high noon of the British Empire in his first Pomp and Circumstance March, Holst had astrologies in mind when he peered into his crystal ball and composed Mars (The Planets) and Richard Strauss was depicting an ancient Persian philosopher-king with the opening dawn of Also sprach Zarathustra. These places and people and philosophies can remain entirely foreign to us while the music reaches a place deep inside us, beyond thought and speech. All these and many other masterpieces can be enjoyed in superb modern recordings on this unique compilation.

This 4-CD set brings together the most famous, beloved and iconic symphonic works, melodies which are engraved in the consciousness of everyone, the canon of classical music as the world knows it.
Played by the prestigious and famous Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded in full digital sound.
A must-have for both the seasoned connoisseur as well as the classical starter. The booklet notes include a detailed description of each work.