I was amazed when I read the positive reviews of this CD; it is by far the worst in my collection. For some reason, orchestral arrangements of rock and pop music do not work, perhaps because they lack the intimacy of a small group without using the full possibilities (e.g. tonal colour, dynamics) of the symphony orchestra. If anyone reading this is unfamiliar with modern (20th century) orchestral music, could I suggest the following as an introduction:

Stravinsky (The Firebird/Petrushka/The Rite of Spring)

Rachmaninov (2nd Piano Concerto)

Debussy (Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune)

Mussorgsky (Night on a Bare Mountain <-- play it loud!)

Or even orchestral scores from films:

Jerry Goldsmith (The Omen, Legend, Alien, etc.)

Danny Elfman (Batman)

John Williams (Star Wars)

The list could go on...

I actually tried to arrange this piece as a project in high school, and even if you don't have an appreciation for orchestral music, this recording is so true to the original composition, and I think it's a great version of the electrified original. Really uses all of the voices of the orchestra well, and as a classically trained bassoon player, I've always loved this performance.

This album is of marginal interest to hard-core Mike Oldfield fans (who already have TB in it's multidious other incarnations), and of no interest whatsoever to anyone else. If you loved the original TB, then this will be of interest to you, in it's expansion and contrast to the original, as it offers a somewhat different shade of perception on the music. However, I must say, this album is nowhere near as good as it could have been. It's a very intriguing idea-TB is one of my favorite pieces of music, ever-and orchestras can always, if applied correctly, make the music just that much better. It doesn't come across perfectly here, though, unfortunately. There were two ideal approaches for the arrangement on this album: re-writing and re-arranging the whole TB piece, with the orchestra in mind; and more or less re-playing the original with orchestral backing. Neither of these approaches were taken. Instead, the music is merely transferred from the original instruments to orchestration. This makes for a predictable, somewhat tedious affair that offers few surprises. Also, the album is poorly produced. The noise dynamics are off, and it's too quiet at times. Perhaps remastering would help. In synthesis: get this if you are a total Mike-addict who loves TB, and just has to hear this slant on it... otherwise get his better albums and forget about this one.

Ce disque n'est pas un arrangement de Tubular Bells par un musicien classique : David Bedford mais LA version gigantesque de cette oeuvre pop majeure. L'orchestre lui donne une puissance qui renouvelle entierement le morceau d'Oldfield. un grand moment.

I agree to a certain extent on the comments about the performance of the orchestra. The performance itself sounds kind of amateurish; but it's sort of like listening to a mediocre orchestra performing an outstanding piece -- you can still enjoy the music itself even though its performance isn't top-notch.

Despite the poor performance, this is my favorite Oldfield record.