Deep Purple
Concerto for Group and Orchestra


Tracks:

1. First Movement: Moderato-Allegro
2. Second Movement: Andante
3. Third Movement: Vivace-Presto

Line up:

Ritchie Blackmore – Guitar
Ian Gillan – Vocals
Jon Lord – Organ, Keyboards
Roger Glover – Bass
Ian Paice – Drums

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Malcolm Arnold

Record Label / Year of Release:

Tetragrammaton 1969 / Harvest Records 1969

Notes:

Concerto for Group and Orchestra was written by Jon Lord, with lyrics by Ian Gillan.
Performed and recorded on 24 September 1969 in the Royal Albert Hall, London by Deep Purple with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

The Concerto for Group and Orchestra was first released on vinyl in December 1969 in the United States (Tetragrammaton) and in January 1970 in the United Kingdom (Harvest). These releases contained only the "Concerto", with the second movement broken in two halves.

In 2003, a video recording of this concert was released on DVD. However, four and a half minutes of the 1st Movement are missing in this video.

On 25 and 26 September 1999, thirty years after its initial performance, the Concerto was again performed in front a live audience in the Royal Albert Hall. To make this performance possible, a new score was created by Marco de Goeij by listening to the recording and watching the video of the 1969 performance. Ronnie James Dio was present as one of the guest vocalists, while Steve Morse replaced Ritchie Blackmore in Deep Purple.

The recording of the concert was released on a double CD as Live at the Royal Albert Hall. A cut recording of the performance was also released on DVD, entitled In Concert with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Encouraged by the success of the 1999 performances, Deep Purple took the Concerto on tour, first performing it in South America with local orchestras, then in Europe with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, in Japan with the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, all conducted by Paul Mann.