Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Danse de la fée dragée)

Arthur Fiedler took great pride in bringing classical music to the world at large. While Leonard Bernstein was busy with his Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic, Fiedler and his Boston Pops Orchestra (most of the members drawn from the Boston Symphony) gave concerts of popular classics that became a fixture on America’s musical calendar. They made several recordings for Polydor / Deutsche Grammophon and the ever-popular Christmas disc is here reissued with built-in bonus tracks by Bach, Humperdinck and Tchaikovsky, in a sleigh ride, taking the listener from a delightful pot-pourri of carols (‘A Christmas Festival’) arranged by Leroy Anderson to Baroque hits in lush orchestrations to high-energy American Christmas songs – all arranged sumptuously for orchestra.

Bringing magic and music together in a fun, interactive collection this compilation encourages children to explore their imaginations, expand their minds with fun facts and stories and listen to some of the world’s greatest Classical Music. The collection features Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Flight of the Bumble Bee and many other well-loved favourites. Children will be invited to see how sorcerers, magical toys, wondrous heroes and fantastical creatures come to life in Classical Music.

A fully illustrated 32 page booklet presents a mystical journey through magical music encouraging the young ready to hear, see and recreate as much as possible. The text is designed to be read either by an older child of 5 or 6 or with an adult for the younger children. The writer is Sarah Breeden noted for the fun and informative programmes she has written for the BBC Children’s Proms.

This collection encourages children to get up and moving! Featuring the best dance music in the Classical world this compilation will keep little ears occupied, exercise their bodies and challenge their imagination and memory. The collection features music from Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, Grieg and Wagner and is carefully paced to build up the movement levels and expose children to many different dance styles, rhythms and tempos as possible.

Recorded at the "Bathurst Mammoth Cathedral Organ", now in Dunedin, New Zealand. The 23 tons of organ was moved there after originally travelling the UK as part of a Vaudeville show and even had a spell in Wembley Stadium, London

David Briggs, Keith John, Adrian Partington, Adrian Lucas, Thomas Murray, Ian Tracey and Malcolm Archer

Classic FM is inviting you to the dance with its brand new double album Waltzing Classics, the ultimate collection of your favourite waltzes and other dances. This wonderful album is packed with the world’s most famous dancing pieces, with waltzes including Khachaturian’s ‘Waltz from Masquerade Ball’, Strauss’ ‘The Blue Danube’, and Meyerbeer’s ‘Skater’s Waltz’. Also included are many other famous dances, including Piazzolla’s fiery ‘Libertango’, Herold’s mischievous ‘Clog Dance’, Prokofiev’s powerful ‘Dance of The Knights’, Ziehrer’s elegant ‘Losslassen’ Polka, and beautiful pieces from the world of ballet including Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Nutcracker’ and ‘Swan Lake’. Waltzing Classics transports the listener to a magical world of the classical ballroom and will appeal to lovers of dancing and classical music alike.

Lang Lang has recorded the official soundtrack for the highly anticipated block buster video game Gran Turismo 5 for PlayStation®.

The game is launched on 24th November 2010.

All eleven tracks on the album have been newly recorded especially for this purpose.

All works on the album are part of the video game.

The 3rd movement of Prokofiev’s Sonata No.7 (track 10) is used in full length in the opening sequence of Gran Turismo.

Bach’s Jesu, Joy Of Man’s Desiring (track 11) is featured in the final sequence.

The soundtrack consists entirely of very recognisable pieces of music.

Lang Lang’s extraordinary ability to reach out to a broad audiences and his affinity for new technologies make him the perfect artist for this project and give him scope to introduce classical music to a new and massive target group of gaming enthusiasts.