New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
© Stephen A’Court

About the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Founded in 1946, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) is one of the world’s oldest national symphony orchestras. Today, the NZSO is recognised as an outstanding orchestra of international stature with a reputation for artistic excellence that attracts many of the world’s leading conductors and soloists. It has a long history on performing on film soundtracks, including Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the RingThe Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. In 2016, the NZSO was nominated for Best Orchestral Performance at the prestigious GRAMMY Awards for their performance of Zhou Long and Chen Yi’s Symphony ‘Humen 1839’ (Naxos 8.570611).

Gävle Symphony Orchestra
Photo courtesy of Frank Julin

About the Gävle Symphony Orchestra

The Gävle Symphony Orchestra is one of the oldest in Sweden, and celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2012. The orchestra tours regularly, both in its home province and elsewhere in Sweden, Scandinavia and the rest of Europe. Since 1998 the orchestra’s home has been the Gävle Concert Hall, regarded as one of Sweden’s best, where the excellent acoustics are preferred by the orchestra, guest artists and ensembles making recordings. The orchestra’s discography lists recordings of works by composers Bo Linde, Wilhelm Stenhammar, Franz Berwald, Hugo Alfvén, Edvard Grieg, Dmitry Shostakovich, Carl Nielsen and Sven-David Sandström.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
© Mark McNulty

About the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Founded in 1840 by a group of Liverpool music-lovers, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is the UK’s oldest continuing professional symphony orchestra and one of the world’s oldest concert societies. The orchestra performs over 70 concerts each season at its home, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, across other venues in the city, and also performs widely throughout the UK and internationally. The orchestra has a distinguished discography with international record labels. The recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Nos. 1, 2 and 5, won Recording of the Year and Orchestral Recording of the Year at the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2017.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
© Chris Zuidyk

About the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) remains at the forefront of the British orchestral music scene, continuing to serve communities across the South and South West of England, and extending its influence across the whole of the UK and internationally with regular festival appearances, an extensive catalogue of recordings and live broadcasts on BBC Radio 3. The BSO is known internationally through over 300 recordings, and continues to release numerous discs each year with Naxos. Recent critically acclaimed recordings have included music by Bernstein, Bartók, Sibelius, Glass, Adams and Elgar, and three discs with José Serebrier featuring arrangements of Mussorgsky, Bach and Wagner by Stokowski were nominated for GRAMMY awards in 2004, 2005 and 2006.