After completing her training as a concert pianist and gaining her diploma, Vesselina Kasarova went on to study singing at the Music Academy of Sofia. She has since then given concerts and recitals throughout Europe, the USA and Japan. Ivor Bolton is chief conductor of the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, with whom he has appeared annually at the Salzburg Festival since 2000, and on tour (including at the 2006 BBC Proms in London), and with whom he has already built up an extensive discography including a critically successful series of Bruckner Symphony recordings. The Sinfonieorchester Basel, rooted in the nation's northwest, is one of the oldest and most important orchestras in Switzerland. Of Madness and Love features vocal and instrumental works of Hector Berlioz inspired by the words of William Shakespeare.