Kashif - Queen Symphony

Composed in 2002, Turkish composer Tolga Kashif pays tribute to music by rock legends Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon - otherwise known as Queen.

Queen frontman Freddie Mercury said in 1974 that he would 'like people to put their own interpretation' on his songs – that is exactly what composer Tolga Kashif did in his classical embodiment of some of the band's best music. After two years' of work, Kashif's Queen Symphony was born, and guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor were both impressed by the work at its premiere.

Listen closely and you'll hear snippets from some of Queen's most iconic songs including Radio Gaga, The Show Must Go On, One Vision, I Was Born to Love You, Another One Bites the Dust, Bicycle Race, Save Me, Who Wants to Live Forever and Bohemian Rhapsody. But it's not simply a case of borrowing the best tunes and presenting them to an orchestra; on the contrary, the music is distinctly symphonic, building on musical fragments and adding brand new material. At times, the music is completely unrecognisable, but at times it's unmistakably flamboyant and faithful to the original melodies.