Alpesh Chauhan

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra & Alpesh Chauhan – Tchaikovsky Orchestral Works Vol. 2 (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:07 minutes | 1,26 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos

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).

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BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Alpesh Chauhan – Tchaikovsky: The Tempest, Francesca da Rimini, The Voyevoda, Overture and Polonaise from ‘Cherevichki’ (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:18:11 minutes | 1,28 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos

Born in Birmingham, Alpesh Chauhan studied cello under Eduardo Vassallo at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester before continuing at the RNCM to pursue the prestigious Masters Conducting Course. Alpesh has studied with Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, participated in masterclasses with Juanjo Mena, Vasily Petrenko and Jac van Steen, and was mentored by Andris Nelsons and Edward Gardner in his post as Assistant Conductor of the CBSO 2014-16. Newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Dusseldorfer Symphoniker from the 21/22 season, he is also Associate Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of Birmingham Opera Company. He frequently appears as guest conductor with acclaimed international orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National d?Ile de France, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale RAI, Malmo Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. For this his debut recording for Chandos, he has chosen a collection of Tchaikovsky?s symphonic fantasias, alongside the Overture and Polonaise from the comic opera ?Cherevichki?. The Tempest, from 1873 is based on the Shakespeare play, and shows that Tchaikovsky?s unique voice and style were already fully developed. Francesca da Rimini (based on the tale in Dante?s Inferno) was written only a few years later, but after Tchaikovsky had attended the premier of Wagner?s Ring cycle in Bayreuth ? an influence discernible particularly in the brass chords. Cherevichki (the Slippers) is a revision of his earlier opera Vakula the Smith, based on Gogol?s Christmas Eve. Tchaikovsky?s Symphonic Ballad The Voyevoda is based on Adam Mickiewicz?s poem ?The Ambush?, and is the first orchestral work to include the (newly invented) Celeste.

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