Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1967. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, but their musical approach has changed over the years. 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". They were listed in the 1975 Guinness Book of World Records as "the globe's loudest band" for a 1972 concert at London's Rainbow Theatre and have sold over 100 million albums worldwide.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, that performs and produces primarily classic works.
John Douglas Lord was an English keyboardist and composer. In 1968, Lord co-founded the hard rock band Deep Purple, and he became regarded as its leader in the early years. 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 was re-established in 1984 until Lord's retirement in 2002. He also spent time in 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.
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.
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:
The Soundboard Series is a live box set recorded and released by the band Deep Purple in 2001. The set contains six double CDs featuring recordings from six different concerts. Two of the concerts feature the band's seldom performed Concerto for Group and Orchestra, with Ian Gillan singing Pictured Within.
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.
The Hoffnung Music Festivals were a series of humorous classical music festivals created by cartoonist and amateur tuba player Gerard Hoffnung and held in the Royal Festival Hall in London. The concerts consisted of humorous works specially commissioned from well-known composers of the day.
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).
The Piano Concerto in B-flat, Op. 58, F.108, was written by Arthur Bliss in 1938 and premiered in 1939. It is a powerful work in the nineteenth-century Romantic tradition, and at the time it was hoped it could prove to be a British "Emperor" concerto. Nicolas Slonimsky described it as "Lisztomorphic in its sonorous virtuosity, Chopinoid in its chromatic lyricism, and Rachmaninovistic in its chordal expansiveness".
Kenneth Alwyn Wetherell was a British conductor, composer, and writer. Described by BBC Radio 3 as "one of the great British musical directors", Alwyn was known for his many recordings, including with the London Symphony Orchestra on Decca's first stereophonic recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. He was also known for his long association with BBC Radio 2's orchestral live music programme Friday Night is Music Night, appearing for thirty years as a conductor and presenter, and for his contribution to British musical theatre as a prolific musical director in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and married the actress Mary Law in 1960. His website and the first volume of his memoirs A Baton in the Ballet and Other Places were both published in 2015. The second volume Is Anyone Watching? was published in 2017.
Andrew Bernardi is an English violinist, educator, festival director and entrepreneur.
