IN CONCERT WITH THE LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Recorded in 1999 in London's Royal Albert Hall (the home of the classical music "BBC Proms"), the centre piece of this performance, and indeed the main reason for the presence of an orchestra, is a rendition of Jon Lord's "concerto for group and orchestra". The timing of the concert reflected the 30th anniversary of its composition. Before we get to that however, the first part of the concert consists of a delightfully slow build up.

With only Lord and the orchestra on stage, we open with a truly emotional performance of "Pictured within" featuring Miller Anderson on vocal. This is followed by a delicate vocal performance by the wonderful Sam Brown for the ballad "Wait awhile".

Even when Roger Glover and Ronnie James Dio take the stage very much in the way classical performers do, the mood remains reflective, as "Sitting in a dream" builds the sound slowly but perceptibly. The first time any semblance of a rock beat appears is on "Love is all", the undoubted highlight of "The butterfly ball", where by this time all but Ian Gillan have made it on stage. Bizarrely, Ian Paice then leaves the stage in order to be introduced, returning with his jazz band for an interpretation of "Wring that neck".

This of course is all by way of a build up to the rendition of the "Concerto". It's fair to say that but for one determined young Dutch composer, this would never have taken place. The original score for the piece had long since been lost, but this devoted individual painstakingly recreated it, virtually note by note.

It important at this stage to state the obvious. The "Concerto" is primarily a piece of classical music. There are lengthy orchestra only sections which are a million miles from "Deep Purple in rock" or "Fireball". The band do of course pay a part in the performance, indeed they are on stage for much of the time, but the score is very much centred on classical themes. Ian Gillan appears for the first time on the DVD after some 50+ minutes to deliver the vocal section of the piece. The opus as a whole is rather dull and convoluted. While it ticks all the right boxes in terms of a well structured concerto, the actual music is unexciting.

The later part of the performance consist of a more rock selection. The orchestra play second fiddle on more recent numbers such as "Ted the mechanic" and "Watching the sky". Steve Morse's riff and Ian Gillan's fine vocal performance on the superb "Sometimes I feel like screaming" distinguishes this recent song as a future classic DP song.

Inevitably we close with an orchestrated "Smoke on the water", with everyone, including there audience, trying to show that they do, honestly, know how to rock out.

It is more than a little ironic that the "Concerto" section is in fact the weakest part of this memorable gig. Even with that in mind this is an excellent DVD, recording a band enjoying some level of self indulgence, but all the while ensuring that they do not over indulge to the detriment of the overall product.

The bonus CD with the re-issued package simply contains audio recordings of some of the tracks on the DVD.

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