Magical night at which Classical Music embraced Rock!
Last night was a unique and magical experience as we had a chance to see and experience BRUCE DICKINSON perform DEEP PURPLE’s repertoire with the Zagreb Philharmonic in Zagreb! Apart from Zagreb, as part of the European tour the concert was also held on March 22 in Sarajevo and on March 25 in Ljubljana, organized by Music Time.
Along with Bruce Dickinson, a number of top musicians performed at the concert:
JOHN O’HARA on keyboards (Jethro Tull),
TANYA O’CALLAGHAN on bass (Whitesnake),
KAITNER Z DOKA on guitar (Jon Lord, Ian Paice, Don Airey),
BERNHARD WELZ on drums (Jon Lord, Ian Paice, Don Airey); accompanied by 74 musicians of the
ZAGREB PHILHARMONIC conducted by
PAUL MANN (Deep Purple, London Symphony Orchestra), one of the most respected conductors of his generation!
BRUCE DICKINSON, singer and frontman of the iconic British heavy metal band IRON MAIDEN, performed a musical masterpiece by one of the most influential keyboardists of all time, JON LORD, “Concerto for Group and Orchestra” and together with the ALL STARS BAND and the ZAGREB PHILHARMONIC in the Dražen Petrović Basketball Center; Zagreb. Composer of one of the first musical works that combined rock and classical music is JON LORD, founder and keyboardist of Deep Purple. The lyrics are written by IAN GILLAN, the singer of the most popular line-up of the famous hard rock band, who is also considered a pioneer of heavy metal music.
“Concerto for Group and Orchestra” is a live album by Deep Purple and the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Arnold, recorded during the premiere performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1969. The Concerto was performed a second time at the Hollywood Bowl in 1970 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, after which the sheet music mysteriously disappeared and the piece was never performed live again. With the help of the conductor Paul Mann and the musicologist Marc de Goeija, listening to and watching the original recordings, Jon Lord wrote the scores again and in 1999 the Concerto was performed again at the Royal Albert Hall with the new line-up of Deep Purple (Gillan, Morse, Lord, Glover, Paice) and the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by maestro Paul Mann, who is also conducting the current European tour. The concert was recorded and released in 2000 on a double CD called “In Concert with the London Symphony Orchestra”.
Numerous performances of the Concerto have been performed by Deep Purple and Jon Lord’s band, conducted by Paul Mann, since 1999- around the world with the most famous philharmonic orchestras. In 2012, a few months after Jon Lord’s death, a studio version of the Concert was released, which was recorded with Lord and Mann by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Steve Morse, Joe Bonamassa, Guy Pratt and other top musicians. Vocal parts were sung by Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), a great fan of Deep Purple music and a close friend of Jon Lord.
The 50th anniversary of the original performance of the Concerto was celebrated in 2019 in Quebec, by Bruce Dickinson, The Paul Deslauriers Band, the Quebec Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Maestro Paul Mann. After the success of the Canadian concert, a team composed of world-famous musicians and members of Jon Lord’s band started the European tour Jon Lord’s Concerto For Group and Orchestra and The Music Of Deep Purple in November 2021.
Bruce Dickinson sounded and looked like a young man with bleached hair. His energy and performance were contagious and even in moments at which there was no singing he managed to orchestrate a performance to demonstrate how much he enjoys the music and spread that positive energy. Indeed, last night’s concert was a moment to indulge into pure enjoyment and feel the thrill of happiness as it was wonderful seeing the magnificent performance of the Zagreb Philharmonic, together with guest star artists. There wasn’t one second we could spare thinking about any of our problems, it was enough just thinking about how much time and energy all the musicians have put into their education and training in order to be able to perform at this magical occasion.
Kaitner Z Doka had impressive solo musical sections on several guitars, he changed during the concert, and at one point I’ve gotten the feeling that the guitarist was leading the whole orchestra which was beautiful. It was a pleasure seeing this renowned guitarist, originally from Dubrovnik, playing with the philharmonic in Zagreb before his domestic audience.
Evening was designed as a combination of classical music and rock and the first part of the evening was dedicated to classical music written by Jon Lord, while the other part included Deep Purple evergreens after several masterpieces performed by Bruce.
It’s impossible to even start and pick the highlight of the evening, but the ecstasy in the audience exploded during the performance of the song “Tears of the Dragon”- which lasted fairly enough also during “Jerusalem”. Magnificent performance of “Pictures of Home” fired up the audience for the rest of the set from Deep Purple songs. It was followed by “When a Blind Man Cries”, “Hush”, with the latter also being a highly and eagerly welcomed highlight of the night!
After “Perfect Strangers” the absolute highlight, moment of pure beauty, ecstasy and catharsis came with the magnificent performance of “Smoke on the Water”. The moment reminded us that music is the only universal, eternal force that will survive all and forever remain the only stronghold that never ever disappoints!
Last night proved that combining classical music and rock is possible and desirable. First part of the concerts was soothing and comforting, pure enjoyment which enabled fans to build up the eagerness to experience the live performances of their most favourite hits. This has also been a successful promotion of classical music and classic rock for youngsters and hopefully numerous new fans of the genres have been created.
