CONCERTO FOR GROUP AND ORCHESTRA

I've always had a soft spot for Deep Purple's Concerto since it was the first rock vinyl LP I owned. When I listen to it nowadays it always brings back memories of studying for my Physics Higher Grade exam when I was in Secondary school. I listened to it a lot back then. This may not mean a lot to some peolpe, but Bob McBeath should remember the Scottish Education system to know what I am talking about.

It was always Jon Lord's baby but its not the best piece they did. In my opinion there just isn't enough of the group playing. This is certainly true of the first movement, where you have 6 minute orchestral introduction before you get to hear the group. The second movement starts off well enough and moves on to a "jazz/blues explosion", this is the only time in the whole piece you hear Gillan. Thereafter I find this movement beomes quite tedious. Lord's own organ solo (also in this movement) is poor. The third movement on the other hand works very well with the "rythmic free for all" at the start which has excellent group/orchestra interaction. This movement also has the drum solo, as drum solos go its very good but at 5 minutes it's too long.

During rehersals Blackmore got really fed up with the orchestra's superior attitude so he hatched a plan to 'show these ba***ds'. (The rest of the group were not in on the plan). After the lengthy orchestral introduction in the first movement, we first hear the group when the settle down to their interpretation of the clarinet tune that was just played. The original intent was that the group would play for about 90 seconds with Blackmore improvising. As it turned out he solos for just over 5 minutes. This section is the highlight of the piece for me. His playing is superb with not a dull moment during the 5 minutes. What a statement to make.