Concerto for Group and Orchestra | ||||
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Live album by | ||||
Released | December 1969 (US) January 1970 (UK) | |||
Recorded | 24 September 1969 | |||
Venue | Royal Albert Hall (London) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 59:26 | |||
Label | Tetragrammaton (US) Harvest (UK) Polydor (Canada) | |||
Producer | Deep Purple | |||
Deep Purple chronology | ||||
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Concerto for Group and Orchestra is a live album by Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Arnold, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in September 1969. It consists of a concerto composed by Jon Lord, with lyrics written by Ian Gillan. This is the first full length album to feature Ian Gillan on vocals and Roger Glover on bass. It was released on vinyl in December 1969. The original performance included three additional Deep Purple songs, "Hush", "Wring That Neck", and "Child in Time"; these were included on a 2002 release. This was the last Deep Purple album distributed in the US by Tetragrammaton Records, which went defunct shortly after.[ citation needed ]
This album, a long planned project driven by Jon Lord, was not very successful in the United States but helped to restore Deep Purple's reputation and image in the United Kingdom. [1]
The 1969 performance is considered "groundbreaking" because it was the first time that a major rock band recorded a live album with a full-fledged orchestra, cementing the "then odd but today very common" relationship between heavy rock and classical music. [2] [Note 1]
The original score for the concerto was lost in 1970; however, it was performed again in 1999 with a recreated score, and has been performed several times since.[ citation needed ]
The piece was first performed and recorded on 24 September 1969 in the Royal Albert Hall, London, by Deep Purple and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Malcolm Arnold. The programme consisted of:
No. | Title | Performer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Symphony No. 6, Op. 95" (Malcolm Arnold) • 1st Movement: Energico (9:19) • 2nd Movement: Lento (8:52) • 3rd Movement: Con Fuoco (7:02)) | The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra | 25:13 |
2. | "Hush" (Joe South) | Deep Purple | 4:42 |
3. | "Wring That Neck" (Ritchie Blackmore, Nick Simper, Jon Lord, Ian Paice) | Deep Purple | 13:23 |
4. | "Child in Time" (Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Lord, Paice) | Deep Purple | 12:06 |
5. | "Concerto for Group and Orchestra" (Jon Lord (with lyrics by Ian Gillan) • First Movement: Moderato – Allegro (19:23) • Second Movement: Andante (19:11) • Third Movement: Vivace – Presto (13:09)) | Deep Purple with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra | 51:43 |
6. | "Parts of the Concerto's "Third Movement" (Given as an encore.) | 5:53 |
Concerto | |
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for Group and Orchestra | |
by Jon Lord | |
Period | Contemporary period |
Form | Concerto |
Composed | 1969 |
Duration | About 50–55 minutes |
Movements | Three |
Scoring | Orchestra and group |
Premiere | |
Date | 24 September 1969 |
Location | Royal Albert Hall, London |
Conductor | Malcolm Arnold |
Concerto for Group and Orchestra is split into three movements. [3]
The Concerto was first performed at the Albert Hall in London on 24 September 1969 with Deep Purple and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Arnold. It was performed at second time at the Hollywood Bowl on 25 August 1970, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Lawrence Foster, after which the score was lost.
Concerto for Group and Orchestra was released on vinyl in December 1969 in the United States (Tetragrammaton) and in January 1970 in the United Kingdom (Harvest). These releases contained only the "Concerto", with the second movement broken in two-halves. Copies of the original US editions are rare as Tetragrammaton went bankrupt while the album was still being issued. In the following year, the Concerto became the only Tetragrammaton release to be reissued by Warner Bros., Deep Purple's new US label. On 4 April 1970 the Concerto was shown on British television as The Best of Both Worlds.[ citation needed ] The 1990s saw a CD release including the songs "Wring That Neck" and "Child in Time". In 2002 EMI released special edition DVD-A, SACD and two-CD sets of Concerto for Group and Orchestra, featuring the entire programme of music played that night. In 2003 a video recording of this concert was released on DVD. However, four and a half minutes of the 1st Movement are missing in this video, as it was taken straight from the BBC's 4 April 1970 broadcast of the event (see above). The edit was in the original BBC broadcast.
Concerto for Group and Orchestra | ||||
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Video by | ||||
Released | 4 April 1970 (TV), 6 May 2003 (DVD) | |||
Recorded | 24 September 1969 | |||
Genre | Classical crossover, progressive rock | |||
Length | 52:30The Best of Both Worlds | |||
Label | Eagle Vision | |||
Deep Purple video chronology | ||||
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All lyrics are written by Ian Gillan; all music is composed by Jon Lord
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "First Movement: Moderato – Allegro" | |
2. | "Second Movement: Andante Part 1" | |
3. | "Second Movement: Andante Conclusion" | |
4. | "Third Movement: Vivace – Presto" |
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Intro" | 3:28 |
2. | "Hush" | 4:41 |
3. | "Wring That Neck" | 13:24 |
4. | "Child in Time" | 12:02 |
5. | "First Movement: Moderato – Allegro" | 19:21 |
6. | "Second Movement: Andante" | 19:11 |
7. | "Third Movement: Vivace – Presto" | 13:09 |
8. | "Encore: Third Movement: Vivace – Presto (Part)" | 5:52 |
On 25 and 26 September 1999, thirty years after its initial performance, the Concerto was again performed in front of a live audience in the Royal Albert Hall. To make this performance possible, a new score was created by Lord with the assistance of Paul Mann and Marco de Goeij by listening to the recording and watching the video of the 1969 performance. [4] Performers were:
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The programme consisted of:
A recording of the concert was released on a double CD as Live at the Royal Albert Hall . A cut recording of the performance was also released on DVD, entitled In Concert with the London Symphony Orchestra .
Encouraged by the success of the 1999 performances, Deep Purple took the Concerto on tour, first performing it in South America with local orchestras, then in Europe with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, in Japan with the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, all conducted by Paul Mann.
On 24 September 2009 Jon Lord joined the RTÉ Concerto Orchestra in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, Ireland to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first performance of Concerto for Group and Orchestra. [5] [6] Also performed, were pieces from Jon Lord's solo career and a number of Deep Purple songs including an orchestral version of Child In Time. [5]
The score of the concerto having been recreated, groups and orchestras across the world were free to perform it:
Dates | Venue | Performers |
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January 2003 (3 performances) | Sydney Opera House, Australia for the Sydney Festival | George and The Sydney Symphony Orchestra |
March 2003 (2 performances) | Perth, Australia | Jon Lord, George and The Western Australian Symphony Orchestra |
July 2006 | Henley Festival, England | |
7 October 2007 | Malcolm Arnold Festival, Northampton, England | Jon Lord and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra |
This festival in memory of the late Malcolm Arnold also included Arnold's Symphony No. 6 and Lord's Masque, a work dedicated to Arnold. | ||
27–29 March 2008 (3 performances) | Adelaide, Australia | Jon Lord and The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra |
11–12 March 2009 (2 performances) | Bratislava, Slovakia | Jon Lord and The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra |
2 May 2009 | São Paulo, Brazil | Jon Lord and Orquestra Sinfônica Municipal de São Paulo |
1 September 2009 | Plovdiv, Bulgaria | Jon Lord with singers Doogie White and Kasia Łaska, Darin Vasilev (guitar), Ivaylo Zvezdomirov (bass), Venko Poromanski (drums) and Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nayden Todorov |
5 November 2009 | Bucharest, Romania | Jon Lord and Rousse Orchestra |
16 May 2010 | Newark, Delaware, United States | Brian Stone and the University of Delaware Symphony Orchestra |
16 June 2010 | Liverpool, United Kingdom | Jon Lord and The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra |
28 April 2011 | Palermo, Italy | Jon Lord and The Vincenzo Bellini Symphony Orchestra |
6 June 2011 | Mulhouse, France | Jon Lord with singers Steve Balsamo, Kasia Łaska and Patrick Rondat (guitar), Patrice Guers (bass), Steve White (drums) and the Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse. Musical direction by Gwennolé Rufet. |
21–22 November 2019 | Palais Montcalm, Québec, Canada | 50th anniversary performance and Canadian premiere featuring Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson, The Paul Deslauriers Band and the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec. Musical direction by Paul Mann. |
5 November 2021 | Audi Aréna, Győr, Hungary | Hungarian premiere featuring Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson, Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover, and the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra. Musical Direction by Paul Mann. |
15 March–25 April 2023 | Bucharest, Sofia, Sarajevo, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Sao Paolo, Rio De Janeiro and other cities | 11-date European and Brazilian tour featuring Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo (OSESP), Kaitner Z Doka (guitar), Bernhard Welz (drums), John O'Hara (Jethro Tull) (keyboards), Tanya O'Callaghan (Whitesnake) (bass) and Mario Argandoña (percussion). Musical Direction by Paul Mann. |
In October 2012 a studio version of the Concerto for Group and Orchestra was released. The recording features the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Paul Mann. The soloists are Jon Lord (organ), Darin Vasilev (guitar in the 1st movement), Joe Bonamassa (guitar in the 2nd movement), Steve Morse (guitar in the 3rd movement), Steve Balsamo, Kasia Łaska, and Bruce Dickinson (vocals), Brett Morgan (drums), and Guy Pratt (bass). The orchestral parts were recorded at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool on 1 and 2 June 2011. The band parts were recorded in August and October 2011 and also in May 2012. The album was mixed at Abbey Road Studios in late May 2012. According to Paul Mann, Jon Lord heard the final master of the recording a few days before his death on 16 July 2012.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [7] |
Select | [8] |
In an interview for hospital radio in Huddersfield in 1970, shortly after the Royal Albert Hall performance, Arnold provided a positive take on the experience: [9]
What strikes me about Deep Purple is their tremendous musical integrity. This is so refreshing in a commercial world. I loved working with them. They're thorough musicians. They're not trying to prove anything. They just like to play now and again with a Symphony Orchestra. They're not trying to prove any deep philosophical problem. They just want to write music that's enjoyable.
In a 1979 interview with Sounds magazine [10] Blackmore said:
I was not into classical music then. I was very very moody and just wanted to play very very loudly and jump around a lot. I couldn't believe we were playing with orchestras. We kept getting lumbered playing with them. We started off in '68 –this is my opinion –as a relatively competent band with a lot to say but saying it all at the same time as each other. In '69 we went into the classical stuff because it was Jon Lord's big thing to write a concerto for group and orchestra. He was very sincere, but I didn't like playing it or respect the fact that we were doing it. The orchestra was very condescending towards us, and I didn't like playing with them, so it was one big calamity onstage. But Jon was happy with it and management was happy with it because we had a press angle, which I resented very much.
In 1970 I said, 'right, we're going to make a rock and roll LP. If this doesn't succeed I'll play in orchestras for the rest of my life', because Jon wasn't too into hard rock. Luckily it took off, so I didn't have to play with orchestras any more.
I love orchestras, chamber music –unaccompanied violin is my favourite. But I respected them too much, and we just weren't in the same calibre. I'd been playing 15 years at the time, and stuck next to some dedicated violinist who's been playing for 50 years just to give an angle to the press –it's insulting. That's why it started and ended very abruptly.
The cover art of the Swedish heavy metal band Opeth's 2010 concert DVD In Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall is intentionally similar in layout, colour and motive to that of Deep Purple's Concerto for Group and Orchestra, "underlining Opeth's longstanding love for their prog-rock roots". [11]
Chart (1969–1970) | Peak position |
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Canada Top Albums/CDs ( RPM ) [12] | 50 |
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [13] | 22 |
UK Albums (OCC) [14] | 26 |
US Billboard 200 [15] | 149 |
Chart (1999–2000) | Peak position |
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German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [16] | 32 |
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [17] | 86 |
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [18] | 65 |
Chart (2012) | Peak position |
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German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [19] | 37 |
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally formed as a psychedelic rock and progressive rock band, they shifted to a heavier sound with their 1970 album Deep Purple in Rock. Deep Purple, together with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, have been referred to as the "unholy trinity of British hard rock and heavy metal in the early to mid-seventies". Listed in the 1975 Guinness Book of World Records as "the globe's loudest band" for a 1972 concert at London's Rainbow Theatre, they have sold over 100 million records worldwide.
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born American conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was especially noted for his free-hand conducting style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from the orchestras he directed.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London.
John Douglas "Jon" Lord was an English keyboardist and composer. In 1968, Lord co-founded the hard rock band Deep Purple. Lord performed on most of the band's most popular songs; he and drummer Ian Paice were the only continuous members in the band between 1968 and 1976, and also from when it's revival in 1984 until his retirement in 2002. He also played for the bands Whitesnake, Paice Ashton Lord, the Artwoods, the Flower Pot Men and Santa Barbara Machine Head.
Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold was an English composer. His works feature music in many genres, including a cycle of nine symphonies, numerous concertos, concert works, chamber music, choral music and music for brass band and wind band. His style is tonal and rejoices in lively rhythms, brilliant orchestration, and an unabashed tunefulness. He wrote extensively for the theatre, with five ballets specially commissioned by the Royal Ballet, as well as two operas and a musical. He also produced scores for more than a hundred films, among these The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won an Oscar.
Michael Arnold Kamen was an American composer, orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, songwriter, record producer and musician.
Roger David Glover is a Welsh bassist, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as a member of the hard rock bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. As a member of Deep Purple, Glover was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2016.
Serenade to Music is an orchestral concert work completed in 1938 by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, written as a tribute to conductor Sir Henry Wood. It features an orchestra and 16 vocal soloists, with lyrics adapted from the discussion about music and the music of the spheres from Act V, Scene I from the play The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. Vaughan Williams later arranged the piece into versions for chorus and orchestra and solo violin and orchestra.
Deep Purple, also referred to as Deep Purple III, is the third studio album by the English rock band Deep Purple, released in June 1969 on Tetragrammaton Records in the United States and only in September 1969 on Harvest Records in the United Kingdom. Its release was preceded by the single "Emmaretta" and by a long tour in the UK, whose dates were interspersed between the album's recording sessions.
Gemini Suite Live is a recording of Jon Lord's classical/rock piece Gemini Suite featuring the Mark II band lineup of Deep Purple, recorded live during this one and only live performance in 1970. A follow-up to their "Concerto" Project, it featured five movements for the individual members of the band, including a guitar piece from Blackmore.
Ian Gillan is an English singer who is best known as the lead singer and lyricist for the rock band Deep Purple. He is known for his powerful and wide-ranging singing voice.
The Symphony No. 6, Op. 95 by Malcolm Arnold was written in 1967, and finished in July of that year. It is in three movements:
Live at the Rotterdam Ahoy is a live album recorded by Deep Purple on 30 October 2000 and released in 2001. It includes most of a concert performed in Rotterdam, the Netherlands during the 2000/2001 "Concerto Tour". The Concerto for Group and Orchestra itself was performed, but it does not appear on the album due to "legal requirements". Some tracks are solo compositions by members of the band, two are songs originally recorded by guest Ronnie James Dio, and the remainder are a mix of new and old Deep Purple songs.
In Concert with The London Symphony Orchestra is a live album and DVD by the English hard rock band Deep Purple, recorded on 25–26 September 1999 at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the London Symphony Orchestra, and released on 8 February 2000 on Eagle Records.
Marco de Goeij is a Dutch composer, known for having reconstructed the lost musical score for Jon Lord's Concerto for Group and Orchestra in 1999.
Deep Purple in Rock is the fourth studio album by English rock band Deep Purple, released on 5 June 1970. It was the first studio album recorded by the Mark II line-up of Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice.
The Deep Purple European Tour was a year-long successful concert tour by English hard rock band Deep Purple, lasting from July 1969 until June 1970. The band played mostly United Kingdom shows, also covering West Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium. It was the first tour to feature the classic Deep Purple line-up: Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord and Ian Paice. It is considered to be the pre-tour for the In Rock album, as the band mostly played songs from the upcoming album.
After the 1969 classical / rock fusion Concerto for Group and Orchestra, Jon Lord was commissioned to write a follow-up. This was Gemini Suite, five long movements inspired by the members of Deep Purple, and performed live in September 1970 at the Royal Festival Hall with The Light Music Society Orchestra. Jon Lord then recorded it in the studio as his first solo project in 1971, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Arnold and soloists drawn from the rock world. Gemini Suite was an important step for Lord and led to albums such as Windows (1974) and Sarabande (1976).
Andrew Bernardi is an English violinist, educator, festival director and entrepreneur.
Final Symphony II is a symphonic concert tour first held at the Beethovenhalle in Bonn, Germany on August 29, 2015. The concert performances feature arrangements of video game music selected from the Final Fantasy series, specifically Final Fantasy V, VIII, IX, and XIII. It is divided into four acts, one per game, with the newest game, Final Fantasy XIII, first, and the oldest, V, last; all four arrangements are single-section arrangements, with the IX portion as a piano concerto. The tour is a follow-up to Final Symphony, a similar tour of orchestral arrangement performances from Final Fantasy VI, VII, and X beginning in 2013. The concert is produced and directed by Thomas Böcker of Merregnon Studios, with arrangements provided by Finnish composer and musician Jonne Valtonen, along with Roger Wanamo and Final Fantasy XIII composer Masashi Hamauzu. The original works were composed by Nobuo Uematsu and Hamauzu, and an introductory piece was composed by Valtonen. The premiere concert was performed by the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn under conduction from Eckehard Stier, with guest performer Mischa Cheung joining the orchestra on piano.
Vincent Budd, The Gemini Man: an Introduction to the Orchestral Works of Jon Lord, 2003, Gnosis Press