New Delhi, July 12 -- LONDON - The release on Friday of "Bracken Road" arrived without the scaffolding of a typical classical music debut. No conservatory degree. No gradual accumulation of concert reviews. No decades of critical apprenticeship. Just the piece, and 63 years of waiting.

Anthony Hopkins, 88, announced Thursday that he has signed with Decca Classics, the Universal Music imprint responsible for some of the genre's most commercially successful and critically admired orchestral recordings of the last half-century. His debut album, "Life Is a Dream," is scheduled for August 21. The collection contains orchestral works spanning six decades, performed by Grammy Award-winning conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the Philharmonia Orchestr...