Chiefly during the 1990s, conductor/producer Ettore Stratta built a recording career out of recasting various brands of popular music in symphonic-style orchestral arrangements. Sometimes that meant dabbling in Latin American music (as with Symphonic Boleros, Symphonic Tango, and Symphonic Bossa Nova) and sometimes that meant choosing compatible standards from the jazz and pop worlds to create records with consistent moods (as with A Sentimental Journey and 2000's As Time Goes By: Great Love Songs of the 20th Century). He's also done more specific collections, including a tribute to sci-fi film soundtracks (Music From the Galaxies) and, oddly enough, to Elvis Presley (Symphonic Elvis, recorded -- of course -- with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra). Stratta has recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Fantasy Strings, among other groups, and showed no signs of slowing down following the turn of the millennium. ~ Steve Huey