Conductor Paavo Berglund transformed several orchestras into world-class ensembles over his long career. Known as a perfectionist, he specialized in the music of Sibelius and made three complete recordings of his symphonies. Paavo Berglund and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra recorded this cycle of the symphonies of Jean Sibelius between 1972 and 1977, with additional recordings of the tone poems dating from the same period.

This set of idiomatically lyrical, rhythmic, and colourful interpretations by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and its Chief Conductor, Kirill Karabits, who appears on Chandos for the first time, marks the start of a new series dedicated to lesser-known composers from former Soviet Union countries. The Azerbaijani composer, teacher, folklore authority, and artistic dynamo Kara Karayev was at the forefront of his country’s musical life for almost four decades after the end of the Second World War, recognised as among the significant composers of the post-war Soviet Union. At the dawn of Karayev’s centenary, Kirill Karabits pays homage to the composer by exploring some of his best-known works: the Persian-inspired orchestral suite The Seven Beauties, a movement from the ballet The Path of Thunder, the exuberant "Don Quixote", as well as the symphonic poem "Leyla and Mejnun", after a poem which Byron called "The Romeo and Juliet of the East".