Concerto For Group And Orchestra

Source: Bravewords.com

A promotional video for the very limited mediabook edition of JON LORD‘s Concerto For Group And Orchestra, which includes a CD, documentary DVD, and 80-page book, can be viewed below; the release date is December 7th.

With his legendary organ blues-rock sound, DEEP PURPLE‘s founder and soul, Jon Lord has influenced decades of rock music. He is with no doubt the pioneer of fusing rock and classical/baroque forms and became one of the most important composers of the last decades while having a major impact on the music business. On July 16th, he passed away after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Jon Lord co-wrote many of Deep Purple’s legendary songs like ‘Smoke On The Water’ and played with many bands and musicians throughout his career (WHITESNAKE, to mention one out of many). Best known for his orchestral work Concerto For Group And Orchestra, first performed at Royal Albert Hall with Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1969 and conducted by the renowned Malcolm Arnold – a feat repeated in 1999 when it was again performed at the Royal Albert Hall by the London Symphony Orchestra and Deep Purple.

Jon Lord always wanted a studio recording of the concerto. Irony of fate: he made his desire real only most recently. Hefinalized his very last mission – the first and only studio recording of the famous Concerto For Group And Orchestra, representing the definitive performance of a unique work.

Lord assembled guest musicians such as IRON MAIDEN’s Bruce Dickinson, Joe Bonamassa or Steve Morse in the Abbey Road Studios, to work with his trusted partner, director Paul Mann, on the 2012 version of the legendary concert.

“Over these last years since leaving Deep Purple, I’ve played it over 30 times with different orchestras and conductors all over the world, and, of course, in 2000 I did it well over 30 times with Purple on the Concerto tour, so I’ve been honing the piece live on stage, and I’ve had the opportunity to change things in the score that weren’t sounding quite right. It is therefore a marvellous and exciting prospect to have the definitive recording of the defi nitive version of the score.”(Jon Lord May 2011)

Already available in 2 different formats (CD and CD+DVD including a 5.1 audio mix) now comes a very special edition of the Concerto For Group And Orchestra. Conductor Paul Mann has written a personal history of his association with the Concerto and also detailed the full story of the work and the new recording.

The in-depth text about the person behind the Concerto also features a text from Jon Lord telling about his personal approach to the Concerto as well as a statement of Marco de Goeij, telling how he was able to reconstruct the lost musical score for the Concerto For Group And Orchestra by watching videos of live performances and listening to audio recordings.

All this resulted in a fascinating 80 page story highlighted with rare pictures that will now be released in a mediabook featuring the full Concerto on CD as well as a DVD containing the Making Of as well as exclusive interviews with Paul Mann and Marco de Goeij. So, to paraphrase an early Deep Purple lyric: “Listen, Learn and Read On…”

Source: Bravewords.com

On October 1st, The Highway Star conducted an interview with Paul Mann. Being the conductor of the 1999 Concerto For Group And Orchestra performance, and the subsequent DEEP PURPLE world tour, Paul became a close friend to late Deep Purple keyboardist, JON LORD.

In an excerpt from the interview, Paul Mann discusses recording with IRON MAIDEN frontman BRUCE DICKINSON:

“I was really impressed with Bruce both as a singer and as a person. I spent the day with him at Abbey Road and although Jon was there, he wasn’t well that day and he went off to rest at a certain point and left me to work with Bruce. Later in the day Jon re-emerged and we played him what we’d done.

We started out with me playing it on the piano while Bruce learned it and I straight away noticed how analytically and thoughtfully he was working. Every take he did, he listened to it and registered something and then went back down and tried something different or said: ‘What is it about that? Why isn’t that working? Can you tell me something about that?’ So there was a constant analysing going on and one of the things he said on that day was how much he was enjoying doing something so “musically pure”, just about making the best music rather than there being any other agenda to it.

When you hear him on the recording, that very last thing when he goes to the top of the register, on the very last phrase, he searched and searched and searched to find exactly the right shape for it. Somehow I wish I kept all takes so we could hear how he arrived at it. He did it so thoughtfully and with such artistry, he’s just a fascinating guy and was a perfect choice for this.”

Read the complete interview with Paul Mann at The Highway Star.

Jon Lord’s Concerto For Group And Orchestra was released by Eagle Rock Entertainment on September 25th. The album entered the Classical Album charts in several countries. In Belgium it entered at #15 and has since climbed to #3.

Other chart positions:

Germany: #37
Austria: #44

Lord assembled guest musicians such as Bruce Dickinson, JOE BONAMASSA (BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION) and Deep Purple guitarist Steve Morse in the Abbey Road Studios, to work with his trusted partner, director Paul Mann, on the 2012 version of the legendary concert.

“Over these last years since leaving Deep Purple, I’ve played it over 30 times with different orchestras and conductors all over the world, and, of course, in 2000 I did it well over 30 times with Purple on the Concerto tour, so I’ve been honing the piece live on stage, and I’ve had the opportunity to change things in the score that weren’t sounding quite right. It is therefore a marvelous and exciting prospect to have the definitive recording of the definitive version of the score.” (Jon Lord May 2011)

On July 16, 2012, Jon Lord passed away in London at 71 years old. This album is a joyful testament of a great musician and fantastic man.

“His dignity and graciousness touched us all. His music was an inspiration and took us to places beyond our imagination… A truly great man. We humbly express our eternal love and great respect.” – Tribute from Deep Purple upon the passing of Jon Lord.

Jon Lord’s Concerto For Group And Orchestra features the following tracklisting:

‘Movement One’
‘Movement Two’
‘Movement Three’

http://youtu.be/x4bbU_j-mow