The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – The Beatles Concerto(1979)

Biography
John Milford Rutter (CBE) is an English composer, conductor, editor, arranger and record producer, mainly of choral music and of the piano duo Rostal & Schaefer. The Beatles Concerto is a concerto for two pianos and orchestra by John Rutter, based on various Beatles songs. A recording from 1979 conducted by Ron Goodwin included the interpretation and performance of concert-pianists Peter Rostal and Paul Schaefer as well as the accompaniment from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. The guest leader of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic for this recording was Hugh Maguire.
Peter Rostal, of the piano duo Rostal & Schaefer, writes: “The idea of creating a Beatles Concerto for two pianos and orchestra occurred to me during a sleepless night early in 1977. This was partly because I loved the Beatles’ music, and along with my piano duo partner, Paul Schaefer, we often included our own arrangements of their songs in our two-piano recitals anyway. However, it also seemed to me that several of the tunes were not simply beautiful melodies, but several (eg Eleanor Rigby, Can’t Buy Me Love, etc) incorporated motifs that had the potential to be developed within the structure of a large-scale classical concerto. It also seemed natural that certain songs, such as The Long and Winding Road and Something, could sound wonderful in the grand romantic concerto style of Rachmaninov or Tchaikovsky.George Martin provided the liner notes on the back of the LP cover: “The arrival of the Beatles in 1962 heralded a collation of creativity unprecedented in English popular music, embracing the best of talents far wider than their own group. Their success broke all kinds of barriers, and when the shocked establishment managed to hear the music through the “noise” the realised that genuinely original music of lasting beauty was being created. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles_Concerto

Album & Cover
A recording from 1979 conducted by Ron Goodwin included the interpretation and performance of concert-pianists Peter Rostal and Paul Schaefer as well as the accompaniment from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. The guest leader of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic for this recording was Hugh Maguire. The record label was EMI, and in those days EMI had its own mobile recording service and were frequent visitors to the RLPO and the Philharmonic Hall. The engineer for these sessions was the veteran sound genius Stuart Eltham. The recording was made on eight-track one-inch tape (EMI’s own brand) running at 15 inches per second on Studer A80 tape machines. Dolby A noise reduction was used on each channel. Microphones were all Neumanns. EMI used their own design sound mixing desk and Tannoy monitor speakers. George Martin provided the liner notes on the back of the LP cover: “The arrival of the Beatles in 1962 heralded a collation of creativity unprecedented in English popular music, embracing the best of talents far wider than their own group. Their success broke all kinds of barriers, and when the shocked establishment managed to hear the music through the “noise” the realised that genuinely original music of lasting beauty was being created. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles_Concerto

Cover Location:
Who Did What: Photography – P. Christopherson. Cover Design – Hipgnosis.
Label: MMG MMG1121(UK)
Source: Vinyl. Album. Cover. Art, The Complete Hipgnosis Catalogue: Aubrey Powell

Tracklist

Credits
Side A – The Beatles Concerto arranged by John Rutter
Side B – Six Beatles Impressions
Directed By [Orchestra] – Ron Goodwin
Liner Notes [Sleeve] – George Martin
Piano – Paul Schaefer, Peter Rostal
Written-By – Harrison (tracks: A2b, B5), Lennon & McCartney (tracks: A1a to A2a, A3a to B4, B6)