Jon Lord in Liverpool 16th June
David Meadows
years ago to hear Jon Lord's new concert suite. Now I'm there again to
hear... oh, Jon Lord's new concert suite :-)
I would say the venue was about half full and judging by the t-shirts and
conversations around me I would guess that at least half the audience were
"old" Jon Lord fans and not general classical music fans.
It was probably the most annoying audience I have ever sat in for an
orchestral concert, with a lot of fidgeting, whispering, leaving to go to
the loo in the middle of the quiet bits, and even a mobile phone going off!
When I'm listening to music, I want to be able to forget there's an audience
there and concentrate on the music. (This isn't just a complaint I have at
orchestral concerts, I find audiences just as annoying at rock concerts.
Maybe I'm just getting intolerant in my old age.)
anyway, I'll try to forget the audience and describe the music.
The first half had Jon playing piano with a smallish orchestra (strings and
a bit of wind) and opened with "The Telemann Experiment", which I find one
of his most memorable pieces -- it's what I was humming all the way home
from the concert. Then Evening Song, rewritten as an instrumental for piano
and orchestra. It's a nice enough tune but I'm not convinced it really works
without the lyrics.
Then the new work: "To Notice Such Things" for solo flute, piano and string
orchestra, dedicated to the Late Sir John Mortimer. It comes in six short
movements, each one representing an aspect of Mortimer's life, and lasts
about 30 minutes.
It's hard to talk about a piece of music I've only heard once, so I'll
report properly after I've played the CD a few times. But it has typical
"Jon Lord" trademarks: long, melancholy cello tunes, big string crescendos,
and generally it sounds like a piece of mid-20th-century classical music. If
you like all that, you'll probably like this piece. If you don't... then you
probably won't like Jon Lord's music at all.
I was very impressed with the flute cadenza (Cormac Henry on flute). I think
more people should be writing flute concertos. Flutes are cool.
The second half consisted of what is genuinely my favourite piece of
orchestral music: Concerto for Group and Orchestra. I have heard this seven
times now (that's every UK performance, except the first) and I'm still
surprised by how different it sounds each time. Not just in the improvised
solos, that's to be expected, but the orchestra always sounds different too.
Anyway, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, conducted by Clark Rundell,
sounded as good as any orchestra I have heard. But different. That's all I
can say about it -- I don't have the technical knowledge to explain what I
mean.
The soloists: Jon Lord on Hammond B3, obviously. Miller Anderson on
vocals -- it was supposed to be Steve Balasamo but he pulled out due to
illness. To be perfectly honest, I think Balsamo's voice suits the Concerto
better, but Anderson made a good job of it. Don Richardson on bass guitar,
Steve White on drums -- tremendous drum solo, and (unlike a certain Deep
Purple drummer) he remembered the cow-bell rhythm he was supposed to end
with to cue the orchestra back in!
The star of the night for me was Mark Zyk on guitar. Call me old-fashioned,
but there's just something *right* about a man in black playing a white
Stratocaster, especially on the same stage as Jon Lord. (Yes, I know Ritchie
never played the Concerto on a Strat, doesn't matter, it still feels right.)
Zyk plays with a beautiful tone and superb technique that owes a lot to
Ritchie Blackmore -- I only wish he had extended his solos a LOT longer!
The concert ended with a standing ovation, then an encore of "Pictured
Within". Millar Anderson sounding a *lot* more comfortable singing the song
that was written for him. then another standing ovation, and that was it.
--
David Meadows
More reviews: http://www.heroes.force9.co.uk/music
A-A
> The concert ended with a standing ovation,
Thank you David for your review.