Taking the stage, Guy Barker alleges that upon being pitched this Kind of Blue symphonic concept he exclaimed “you’re asking me to arrange one of the most intimate albums ever made for 100 musicians!?” A heck of a challenge. Although, what better time to take on this particular 100-musician challenge in this Miles Davis centenary year?

So they open with ‘So What’, and instead of the familiar, spare piano of Bill Evans, we hear the swell of the BBC Concert Orchestra and Guy’s Big Band. It sets the tone and then gives way to the familiar bass line made famous by Paul Chambers. This pattern of bass set up followed by orchestra is repeated for ‘Freddie Freeloader’, and when the lush strings take over it’s hard not to marvel at just how many musicians are packed onto the stage of the Big Top. Truly, it looks as if their combined forces are about to spill over the edge when right on cue, a tumbling sax solo draws attention back to the music.

Both ‘Blue in Green’ and ‘All Blues’ create wonderful moments for soloists to shine. The featured saxophone captures a true yearning followed by a trombone solo that really is a scorcher: big, strutting tone and mesmerizing dexterity. The passages which place the symphonic ensemble in focus are a change to enjoy something that Guy Barker’s been doing really well for a really long time. His ability to capture that ‘golden age’ sound gets its annual showcase in the London Jazz Festival overtures and here at Cheltenham we get to hear something eternal in miniature.

While working chronologically through the seminal album makes the ‘Flamenco Sketches’ finale rather inevitable, it also does feel as if the best has been saved ’til last. Symphonic sound bed meets with gorgeous sax, expressive muted trumpet and Ed Richardson’s singular ability to play drums collaboratively amidst massed orchestral players. Celebrating Miles Davis’s iconic Kind of Blue via the orchestra is a challenge worthy of Miles-level audacity, and it seems that Guy Barker and these game musicians were just the mavericks for the job.

Find out where the BBC Concert Orchestra are next performing here.