For this his début recording for Chandos, Alpesh Chauhan has chosen a collection of Tchaikovsky’s symphonic fantasias, alongside the Overture and Polonaise from the comic opera Cherevichki. La Tempête, from 1873, is based on Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, 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 première 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.

Born in Birmingham, Alpesh Chauhan studied cello under Eduardo Vassallo at the Royal Northern College of Music, in Manchester, before pursuing the College’s prestigious Master’s Conducting Course. He has studied with Stanisław Skrowaczewski, participated in master-classes 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 in 2014–16. Newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker from the 2021 / 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’Île de France, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

The album was recorded in Glasgow City Halls in Surround Sound and is available as a Hybrid SACD and in Dolby Atmos spatial audio.