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J O N L O R D C O N C E RT O
FOR GROUP AND ORCHESTRA
R O YA L L I V E R P O O L P H I L H A R M O N I C
ORCHESTRA
c o n d u c t e d b y PA U L M A N N
JON LORD and SOLOISTS
1. Moderato - Allegro
16.20
2. Andante19.34
3. Vivace - Presto
10.48
Second movement lyrics by Ian Gillan.
All tracks published by B Feldman & Co Ltd T/A Hec Music
P & C 2012 Thompson Music P/L under licence to Australian
Broadcasting Corporation. Distributed in Australia and New Zealand by
Universal Music Australia Pty Ltd under exclusive licence. Made in Australia.
All rights of the owner of copyright reserved. Any copying, renting, lending,
diffusion, public performance or broadcast of this record without the
authority of the copyright owner is prohibited.
J O N L O R D C O N C E RT O
FOR GROUP AND ORCHESTRA
JON LORD and PAUL MANN, LIVERPOOL 2011
On the afternoon of July 16th 2012, as final preparations for this release were
being made, Jon Lord’s passing robbed the world of a unique musician and
took from Vicky, Sara, Amy and Reggie a much-loved husband, father and
grandfather. Those of us who were fortunate enough to be close to him have
lost an irreplaceable friend. He heard the final master of this recording only
a few days before he left us. On behalf of everyone involved, we dedicate
it to his memory with all our love.
Paul Mann
Vicky, Amy and I are so pleased that this new studio recording is being
released now. It saddens us deeply that Dad wasn’t able to see it come out
for himself - but he, as with all the music he created, was fully involved in
every stage of the process - having approved the artwork and mixes only
a few weeks before he died. We know that it adds something new and
dynamic to the long, intricate and mystical tale of ‘the Concerto’, and we
hope that it will be received as a welcome addition to his wondrous
and inspiring contributions to music.
Thank you, from ‘his girls’ - Vicky, Amy and Sara.
J O N L O R D C O N C E RT O
FOR GROUP AND ORCHESTRA
J
on Lord’s Concerto for Group and
Orchestra has a chequered history. It was
first performed by the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Arnold at
the Royal Albert Hall on September
24th 1969, with the band Lord had
founded the previous year, Deep Purple,
as soloists. After a further performance at
the Hollywood Bowl in August 1970, the
score and parts went missing and have
never been recovered.The existence of the
work today is due principally to the efforts
of the Dutch composer Marco de Goeij,
whose painstaking transcription of the
score from its original recording during
1998-9 allowed the composer and myself
to embark upon a full-scale reconstruction
and revision prior to the 30th anniversary
performances, again at the Albert Hall with
Deep Purple, in September 1999.
A couple of years ago, over a glass or two
around Jon’s kitchen table, the idea arose
of taking the Concerto into the studio
for the first time. It was the composer’s
suggestion to handpick the soloists,
choosing a different guitarist for each
movement, and three separate vocalists.
This had the effect of emphasising the
nature of the music itself, rather than
filtering everything through the personality
of a single band.
The Concerto is cast in three movements,
over the course of which an evolving
drama can be traced between the
monolithic orchestra and its unruly
guests. Retaining at least some aspects
of traditional form, it opens with a long
orchestral tutti, which might be heard as
a kind of diary of the young Jon Lord’s
favourite symphonic works. There are,
for example, echoes of Sibelius’ First
Symphony in the lonely clarinet solo of
the opening bars, and of Tchaikovsky’s
Fourth in a pizzicato episode near the
beginning. But there is also a syncopated
swing in the music which identifies the
voice as Jon’s own, and he retains a tight
control over his material, deploying
it with a logic and economy which is
genuinely ‘symphonic’.
J O N L O R D C O N C E RT O
Towards the end of the exposition,
a handful of woodwinds hit upon a
syncopated rhythm which sets up a cocky
little tune in the solo clarinet. As if this
display of symphonic complacency were
the final straw, the band comes crashing in,
sending the orchestra scattering in alarm.
Having made its entrance in this somewhat
indecorous manner, the band proceeds to
take control, with a driving version of the
clarinet tune from the opening, leading
to a guitar improvisation in the home
key of G minor. (It was this which Ritchie
Blackmore seized upon with such manic
glee at the original performance, building
a solo of such astounding breadth and
inventiveness that Malcolm Arnold began
to wonder if he’d forgotten the cue to
bring the orchestra back in.)
The orchestra again attempts to wrest
control, this time deploying heroic horns
(and a very explicit reference to Holst’s
Jupiter.) Increasingly un-intimidated,
the band now proceeds to show off their
Hammond organ player. As his solo
begins to wind down, the orchestra begins
muttering to itself, provoking a vertiginous
crescendo and a solo cadenza for the
guitar. A nervous low rumble in the
basses and timpani leads to a shortened
recapitulation and climactic standoff in
which band and orchestra exchange
power chords at full force. When the
dust clears, the same cheeky clarinet that
had provoked the band’s first entrance
now indulges in a solo cadenza of his
own, as if parodying the guitarist.This
culminates in a frenetic coda, a battle of
wills in which the outcome is a draw. In
the final moments, the equally matched
protagonists hammer out a sequence of
unison chords, bringing the movement
roaring to its confrontational conclusion.
y greatest possible contrast, the
second movement begins in a mood
of almost Russian bleakness, with a softly
treading bass line, tolling bells, cold
violin harmonics, and keening bassoons.
First the flutes and then a cor anglais
sing plaintively over a background of
Sibelian string tremolandi. The band,
sitting quietly through all of this, gently
join in, as if realising that the orchestra is
suggesting a whole new range of colours
they might use. Ushered in by a short and
striking reference to Dvorak’s New World
B
R O YA L L I V E R P O O L P H I L H A R M O N I C O R C H E S T R A
Conductor : Paul Mann
Violin : Thelma Handy, Adi Brett, Rakhi Singh, Martin Richardson,
Concettina Del Vecchio, Alexander Marks, Donald Turnbull, Miriam Davis,
Robert John Hebbron, David Whitehead, Stephan Mayer, Steven Wilkie,
Helen Boardman, Wendy de St Paer, Katharine Richardson, Elen Richards,
Martin Clark, Martin Anthony Burrage, Patrick James Hutton, James Justin Evans,
Nicola Gleed, Sheila Gascoyne, Sophie Coles, Kathryn Cropper, David Rimbault,
Claire Stranger-Ford, Noel Anderson,
Viola : Catherine Marwood, John Robert Shepley, David Ruby, Richard Wallace,
Joanna Wesling, Rebecca Walters, Daniel Sanxis, Ian Fair, Carolyn Tregaskis,
Michael Dale, Ros Cabot,
Cello : Ian Bracken, Gethyn Jones. Stephen Mann, Ruth Owens,
Alexander Holladay, Nicholas Byrne, Joanna Lander, Simon Denton
Double Bass : Marcel Becker, Ashley Frampton, Nigel Dufty,
Daniel Hammerton, Genna Spinks, Lowri Morgan
Flute : Cormac Henry, Fiona Paterson
Piccolo : Claire Fillhart
Oboe : Tom Davey, Catrin Ruth Davies
Cor Anglais : Rachael Pankhurst
Clarinet : Katherine Lacy, Thomas Verity
Bassoon : Alan Pendlebury, Gareth Twigg
Horn : Timothy Jackson, Simon Griffiths, David Pigott, Timothy Nicholson,
Christopher Morley
Trumpet : Rhys Owens, Paul Marsden, Brendan Ball
Trombone : Simon Cowen, James Blyth Lindsay
Bass Trombone : Simon Chappell
Tuba : Robin Haggart
Timpani : Neil Hitt
Percussion : Josephine Frieze, Henry Baldwin, Richard Winter, Harry Percy
Harp : Eleanor Hudson
J O N L O R D C O N C E RT O
PAUL MANN and the ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC, LIVERPOOL 2011
THE SOLOISTS
Jon Lord : organ. Darin Vasilev : guitar (1st Movement),
Joe Bonamassa : guitar (2nd Movement), Steve Morse : guitar (3rd Movement)
Steve Balsamo : vocals, Kasia Łaska : vocals, Bruce Dickinson : vocals
Brett Morgan : drums. Guy Pratt : bass
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Executive Producers : Drew Thompson & Tarquin Gotch
Management Jon Lord : Tarquin Gotch
Music Director : Paul Mann
Orchestral recording Producer : John Fraser
Orchestral recording Engineer : Philip Hobbs
Orchestral recording Editor : Julia Thomas
Engineer : Andrew Dudman
Assistant Engineer : Pete Hutchings
Stereo and 5.1 Mastering : Martin Pullan (Edensound)
Photography : Mick Gregory
Painting / cover concept: Ben Cunningham.
CD booklet design and artwork : easy on the eye
Legal : Julian Hewitt (Media Arts Lawyers)
With grateful thanks to everyone who was involved :
Marco de Goeij, Jane Ward, Colette Barber, Robin Hurley, Rasmus Heide, Max Vaccaro,
Robert Patterson, John Craig, Martin Buzacott, Warren Cracknell, Roy Weisman, Tiny Evans,
Giampiero Soncini, James Ware, Jonathan Channon, Bruce New, Dipak Rao, Carla Perna,
Cez Darke, Nigel Reeves, Wayne Godfrey, Joe Satriani, Mick Brigden, Steve Luthaker,
Ross Halfin, Lars Ulrich, Colin Hart , Holly Topps, Nigel Young, Simon Robinson.
J O N L O R D C O N C E RT O
FOR GROUP AND ORCHESTRA
Symphony, the Hammond organ and solo
guitar softly blend with the woodwinds. The
music soon fractures into a sort of stylised
5/8 dance, taken up in turn by the band.
At this point, the vocalist makes his first
appearance. Ian Gillan’s lyrics were
reportedly written perilously close to the
deadline, over a bottle or two of Chianti in
an Italian restaurant close to the Albert Hall,
and they lay bare his apprehension about the
impending concert:
KASIA ŁASKA, STEVE BALSAMO, ABBEY ROAD 2012
How can I see when the light has gone out?
How can I hear when you speak so silently?
More than enough is never too much;
Hold out a hand, I’m so out of touch...
J O N L O R D C O N C E RT O
FOR GROUP AND ORCHESTRA
The orchestra tries its 5/8 dance again, but
seems unable to dispel the singer’s anxiety, and
the Hammond again muses on the situation,
together with sympathetic woodwinds. The
cellos and basses lead an extended passage
of lyrical counterpoint for the strings, which
JON LORD and PAUL MANN, ABBEY ROAD AUGUST 2011
broadens into a passionately Tchaikovskian
outburst from the whole orchestra.After
this, it is again left to the organ and
supporting woodwinds to announce an
unexpected development: a full-blown
twelve-bar blues, replete with searing guitar
and Gillan’s ever more desperate misgivings:
What shall I do when they stand smiling at me?
Look at the floor and be oh so cool...
How will I know when to start singing my song?
What shall I do if it all goes wrong?
MARCO DE GOEIJ, JON LORD and PAUL MANN, LIVERPOOL 2011
J O N L O R D C O N C E RT O
FOR GROUP AND ORCHESTRA
After the blues has played itself out, a brass
fanfare introduces the Hammond cadenza,
which in turn leads to the Concerto’s most
intensely personal episode: a string quartet
takes up the organist’s final chords as if
they have been listening intently to him
all along. (It was no doubt here that some
early critics identified a resemblance to
Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme
of Thomas Tallis - indebted it may be, but
pastiche it is not.) As the massed strings
make their hushed final commentary on
their quartet colleagues – marked “barely
audible” in the score – and the violas
intone a threnody of Shostakovich-like
desolation, the movement comes to its
forlorn and deeply touching conclusion.
A
fter this desolate landscape, the finale
comes as a blast of renewed energy.
In Jon’s one serious departure from classical
norms, it does not return to the original
tonality of G minor, but retains the key of
E Minor in which the second movement had
ended. Only the most curmudgeonly of
pedants would hold that against the young
composer though, since the music is a
remarkable tour de force of sustained forward
momentum. Replacing the conflicts of the
first movement with a shared ‘concerted’
effort, band and orchestra engage in an
exhilarating exchange of ideas as if provoking,
inspiring and emboldening one another.
After the brassy opening flourish, in which
the influence of Malcolm Arnold is especially
strongly present, the strings set up a rhythm
which turns out to be one of the Concerto’s
in-jokes, being a string orchestra version
of a drummer’s paradiddle. Over this, the
horns heroically intone the movement’s main
theme.As if provoked by the activities of the
orchestra’s percussion section, the band’s
drummer flexes his muscles, closely followed
J O N L O R D C O N C E RT O
FOR GROUP AND ORCHESTRA
Clockwise from top left: DARIN VASILEV, JOE BONAMASSA, ABBEY ROAD 2012; STEVE MORSE, JUNE 2011
PAUL MANN, JON LORD and GUY PRATT, LIVERPOOL 2011
by the bass guitarist, leading to a gentle
exchange of melodies between the solo guitar
and Hammond organ, with the strings warmly
and appreciatively accompanying the band.
The drum solo provokes a good-natured
battle with the orchestral percussionists, and
as everyone joins the fray, one joyous moment
of display leads breathtakingly to another.
At one point, the orchestra transforms the
band’s second movement blues theme into a
wildly euphoric dance, but even this felicitous
touch passes by so quickly as to be almost
unnoticeable.
Above JON LORD and BRUCE DICKINSON : ABBEY ROAD, AUGUST 2011. Below BRETT MORGAN, LIVERPOOL 2011
A
fter a final exuberant unison “whoop”
from the horns (a nod to another
favourite Arnold gesture) and the concluding
crashing off-beat chord, it is clear that from
a position of inherent incompatibility and
conflict, group and orchestra have not only
learnt to make music together: they have
empowered one another in the process.
And that’s as good a summary as any
of my experience with this unique and
extraordinary work.Without making
any pretentious statements about “the
relationship between rock and classical
music” (there isn’t one), or “bringing a new
audience to classical music” (the one it has
seems to be doing just fine, thanks – and
anyway no-one talks about bringing a new
audience to rock...) we made music in the
place where the best of both worlds meet.
That was all Jon Lord intended back in 1969,
and it is this, along with the appeal of the
score itself, which assures the Concerto
for Group and Orchestra its place in the
repertoire. Paul Mann
A technical note on this recording.
The orchestra sessions took place at Philharmonic
Hall, Liverpool, UK, on June 1st and 2nd, 2011,
followed by two days of overdubbing at Abbey
Road Studios, London; on August 13th (with
Jon Lord and Bruce Dickinson), and on October
20th (with Kasia Laska, Steve Balsamo, and Joe
Bonamassa.) On May 9th 2012, Steve Morse took
a few hours off from working on the new Deep
Purple album in Germany to revisit the finale,
while Darin Vasilev added his guitar to the first
movement in Sofia and in London. Mixing took
place at Abbey Road with the brilliant Andrew
Dudman over two days in late May 2012,
supervised by the composer and myself.
Notes extracted from “Jon Lord’s Concerto for
Group and Orchestra, A Personal History”.
J O N L O R D C O N C E RT O
FOR GROUP AND ORCHESTRA