Deep Purple – Concerto For Group And Orchestra (1970/2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 53:49 minutes | 1,88 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Rhino Atlantic
Deep Purple, one of the pioneers of hard rock, integrated classical elements into their 1970 masterpiece Concerto For Group And Orchestra. Each movement is an innovative display of raw orchestral power blended with an exhilarating rock band. The work composed by keyboardist Jon Lord found the band joined by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. This undeniable masterwork will have listeners at the edge of their seats.
Back in 1970, it seemed as though any British group that could was starting to utilize classical elements in their work – for some, like ELP, that meant quoting from the classics as often and loudly as possible, while for others, like Yes, it meant incorporating classical structures into their albums and songs. Deep Purple, at the behest of keyboardman Jon Lord, fell briefly into the camp of this offshoot of early progressive rock with the Concerto for Group and Orchestra. For most fans, the album represented the nadir of the classic (i.e., post-Rod Evans) group: minutes of orchestral meandering lead into some perfectly good hard rock jamming by the band, but the trip is almost not worth the effort. Ritchie Blackmore sounds great and plays his heart out, and you can tell this band is going to go somewhere, just by virtue of the energy that they put into these extended pieces. The classical influences mostly seem drawn from movie music composers Dimitri Tiomkin and Franz Waxman (and Elmer Bernstein), with some nods to Rachmaninoff, Sibelius, and Mahler, and they rather just lay there. Buried in the middle of the second movement is a perfectly good song, but you’ve got to get to it through eight minutes of orchestral noodling on either side. The third movement is almost bracing enough to make up for the flaws of the other two, though by itself, it wouldn’t make the album worthwhile – Pink Floyd proved far more adept at mixing group and orchestra, and making long, slow, lugubrious pieces interesting. As a bonus, however, the producers have added a pair of hard rock numbers by the group alone, “Wring That Neck” and “Child in Time,” that were played at the same concert. They and the third movement of the established piece make this worth a listen.
Tracklist:
01. Deep Purple – First Movement: Moderato – Allegro (2010 Remastered Version) (19:16)
02. Deep Purple – Second Movement: Part 1 – Andante (2010 Remastered Version) (06:31)
03. Deep Purple – Second Movement: Part 2 (2010 Remastered Version) (12:33)
04. Deep Purple – Third Movement: Vivace – Presto (2010 Remastered Version) (15:26)
