Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Deep Purple
Label: Harvest Records
Released: 1969
Length: 59:26
Rating: 4.5/5
»Concerto for Group and Orchestra« was an ambitious orchestral project that built a bridge between rock and classical music, created under the composing and arranging direction of legendary Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord (1941-2012). It was also the first Deep Purple album recorded by the classic Mark II lineup, the most beloved one among the band’s devoted fans.
Toward the end of 1969, the British heavy rock champions found themselves at a major turning point. Wanting a radical change of style, they showed singer Rod Evans and bassist Nick Simper the door, since the two didn’t share their vision of a much heavier sound going forward. Lord, the unpredictable guitar virtuoso Ritchie Blackmore and drumming grandmaster Ian Paice brought in two former Episode Six members to replace them: singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover, who fit perfectly into the new heavy rock sonic vision. The first track recorded by the Mark II lineup was the single »Hallelujah« (originally written by Greenaway and Cook), which went virtually unnoticed on British soil. Still, better times were soon on the horizon for the ambitious band, with Gillan and Glover full of energy and eager to prove themselves.
Well, before they got around to recording their fourth studio album, Lord decided to record an orchestral project together with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Malcolm Arnold. The full program consisted of Arnold’s symphony »Symphony No. 6, Op. 95« (which didn’t make it onto this recording), three main Lord orchestral movements titled »Concerto for Group and Orchestra«, a new version of »The Book of Taliesyn« (1968), the instrumental »Wring That Neck«, the beloved classic »Hush« with Gillan on vocals, and an extended version of the classic »Child In Time« from »Deep Purple in Rock« (1970). Lord’s majestic three-part suite, »Concerto for Group and Orchestra«, contains elements of the classical genres of concerto grosso, sinfonia concertante and the orchestral concerto.
»Hush« with Gillan on lead vocals was practically the ideal showcase for the technically far superior new singer, and it’s an upgrade on the original version: you can already feel a somewhat rawer sound from Blackmore’s guitar, while the vocal harmonies are convincingly better than on the original. Even Lord’s mouthwatering organ solo is played with noticeably more authority this time. »Wring That Neck«, already an excellent instrumental in its basic form, comes out even better in the extended version thanks to a number of spirited jams. Somewhere in the middle, a proper solo duel breaks out between Blackmore and Lord, and it ends with no winner. Already in one of his first live tests, Glover proves he’s a much more talented and distinctive bassist than his predecessor Simper, while Paice flattens everything in front of him on drums and, in the middle of the wild marches, stops on a dime at exactly the right moments, intelligently. Lord dominates with authority, generously laying down those rattling Hammond organs.
There’s no doubt that »Concerto« was completely his project, and the rest of the band, with the exception of Blackmore, saw him as the leader of the group at the time, even though this eternal English gentleman, who was most often the band’s main go-between with the media, kept fending off that flattering title. You could say this version of »Wring That Neck« offers a nice glimpse of the later Purple long-form live jams, when a song that averaged five minutes was stretched to more than twenty minutes, or even half an hour.
The immortal classic »Child In Time«, even in a somewhat stretched-out version, gives a vivid glimpse of the newly born, much heavier yet no less experimental Mark II style, which they cemented with the legendary album »Deep Purple In Rock«. Above all, though, it’s a stunning document of Gillan’s immense vocal talent, with which he completely overshadowed his predecessor. Technically, Gillan was an incredible singer with a fantastic vocal range, and his reach for radically high notes on »Child In Time« still stuns with its emotional intensity today, so it’s no surprise that in this respect he was also a major inspiration to a whole legion of heavy metal singers, led by Rob Halford (Judas Priest).
Gillan’s heart-wrenching wailing, which tears through the air, is soon built upon with instrumental jams, in which Blackmore first thrills with his supersonic guitar solo, the kind only one of the greatest guitarists of all time can conjure up. In fact, when you talk about the best rock musicians, the Deep Purple Mark II lineup can easily be declared a rock supergroup based on the talents of its individual members, with the difference that none of the band’s members had tasted commercial success before. This interpretation of »Child In Time« is even better than the »Deep Purple In Rock« version in certain segments. And Gillan’s hyperactive closing, emotionally unbelievably sincere, cutting loose like a heart wounded by unhappy love while hitting dizzyingly high vocal frequencies, simply can’t be described in words.
The second part of the concert was entirely classical in flavor. Lord’s concert suite »Concerto for Group and Orchestra«, running a little under an hour, is of course the centerpiece of the whole recording and a successful demonstration of his boundless composing and arranging talent, which this classically trained keyboardist had been honing practically since childhood. »First Movement: Moderato-Allegro« contains gripping, ultra-dramatic orchestral arrangements that create an incredibly intense atmosphere after just the opening minutes. Eventually some boisterously joyful moments burst in too, and around the seventh minute the band’s instrumental section kicks in hard, putting on an unforgettable jam with solo spots that are on the edge of what’s possible. Pompous orchestral motifs keep flowing throughout, and you often get the feeling that the band and the orchestra are fighting for dominance over the central theme.
On »Second Movement: Andante«, the band, riding on Gillan’s vocals, blends with the orchestra far more actively into perfect symphonic cohesion. Gillan’s verses are full of somewhat clichéd romanticism, while the fluidity between the orchestra and the instrumental talents of the individual Deep Purple members, especially during the individual solo flights, stays at an enviable level throughout and serves as a primal demonstration of successfully fusing the innovative concept of rock and symphonic music. The closing part of the suite, »Third Movement: Vivace – Presto«, contains mighty interjections from the dominant wind section and a coherent variation of the overall mood between drama, gloom and playful mischief. The band eventually joins in, first through the rhythm section, which reaches its peak with Paice’s monumental drum solo. Meanwhile, Lord and Blackmore, with melancholic solo spots on organ and guitar respectively, repeatedly take over the central instrumental initiative. Here the band and the orchestra finally merge into perfect sonic cohesion and conjure up majestic ambient magic ‘with one voice’.
»Concerto for Group and Orchestra« was an incredibly ambitious project for its time, the late sixties, and it earns a special place in rock history, because it brought two completely different musical worlds together with real conviction. The brilliant Lord was undoubtedly ahead of his time with his orchestral rock visions, and you could say this project, which he revived exactly thirty years later with the help of friends on a new monumental scale, became his life’s work. Gillan and Blackmore didn’t share his enthusiasm, as it bothered them that the public of the day had started treating Deep Purple as an orchestral band, while they themselves wanted to sail into heavy rock waters as soon as possible.
Rock albums featuring members of a symphony orchestra had been recorded before, but this was the first time a rock band performed live with a full orchestra. A project similar to Deep Purple’s was created in 1970 by The Nice with their »Five Bridges« suite, while popular acts like Roger Waters and Metallica made sure in the years that followed that this kind of collaboration between a rock band and a classical orchestra became a widespread trend, and nowadays this kind of practice has long since stopped being innovative.
Lineup
Jon Lord – keyboards
Ritchie Blackmore – guitar
Ian Gillan – vocals
Roger Glover – bass guitar
Ian Paice – drums
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Malcolm Arnold
Production
Deep Purple
Tracklist
CD 1 (band only):
1. Intro (radio clips) (3:27)
2. Hush (4:40)
3. Wring That Neck (13:23)
4. Child In Time (12:02)
CD 2: Concerto:
1. First Movement: Moderato – Allegro (19:21)
2. Second Movement: Andante (19:11)
3. Third Movement: Vivace – Presto (13:08)
4. Encore: Third Movement: Vivace – Presto (part) (5:52)
