Following the success of their recordings of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Petrushka, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Litton here perform The Firebird. The Firebird was Igor Stravinsky’s first full-length ballet, but not his first collaboration with Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes – he orchestrated two piano compositions by Chopin (also featured on this disc) for use in another project. Andrew Litton here conducts the original ballet score. The disc also includes arrangements of pieces by Tchaikovsky and Sibelius, ending with Stravinsky’s tongue-in-cheek 1955 Greeting Prelude for the 80th birthday of Pierre Monteux. The Bergen Philharmonic’s disc featuring The Rite of Spring and Petrushka was met with critical acclaim – short-listed for a 2011 Gramophone Award, named Editor’s Choice in Classic FM Magazine.