I'll add, I got this BDA a week early thanks to the great generosity of Rob H. (formerly Dixie4 on here) who has struck up a good rapport with Olivier Robert-Murphy (HFPA head honcho).. ORM sent Rob a clutch of upcoming HFPA titles including Symphonica. Dixie Rob was so kind as to send me a copy of the HFPA of Symphonica.
It's a nice enough release - the most exciting part of which is that it's not some tired old rehash reissue of a legacy act, it's a brand new album of a "younger" poppier artist (I hesitate to say young/current as this patently isn't Bruno Mars or Lady Gaga we're talking about here..) even though there's not much pop to the presentation.
Some people may love the material and the sound (I found it a touch too grown-up and the heavy bass, lack of treble sparkle and weird applause fly-in's rob the whole thing of life.).
When GM sings the old Elton tune "Idol" the words "and I like the way his music sounded before" couldn't have been more apt, I was wishing for the fun upbeat George to burst out.. but ever since he got "Older" it's been a progressive slump into more and more adult, sedate material, a little more light and shade (the few more uptempo numbers are pleasant enough but too few & far between) in both the music itself and the sound and this would have been a more worthwhile release.