Jon Lord’s signature work, Concerto for Group and Orchestra from 1969, is finally seeing its first-ever print publication. Meticulously edited by conductor Paul Mann, the score has reached its definitive form, representing the final step on its almost fifty-year journey.
The score for Concerto for Group and Orchestra is available now from De Haske Publishing, joined by a newly revised edition of Jon’s Sarabande suite. Order here.
The Concerto first came to life under humble circumstances during the summer of 1969. Late at night after concerts with Deep Purple, Jon would burn the midnight oil as he composed the work straight into full score on large sheets of manuscript paper spread out on the floor of his West London flat. Eventually, his efforts would book-end his career as a composer.
Following its premiere performances in London and Los Angeles in 1969-70, the score and all the performance material was lost, and has never been recovered. It was only in 1999 that a young Dutch composer by the name of Marco de Goeij approached Jon with a newly reconstructed version of the lost score.
This provided the basis for the thorough revision made by Jon in the lead-up to the 30th anniversary performances at the Royal Albert Hall in 1999, and the world tour that followed in 2000 and 2001.
Ever since then, the score has continued to evolve, with Jon making final changes to the orchestration in preparation for the victorious studio recording of 2011-2012, the last project he worked on before his untimely passing in July 2012.
The new score incorporates all of these new elements, and therefore represents as faithfully as possible Jon’s final thoughts on a work for which he always held a special affection and which initially set him off on his two parallel journeys as a classical composer and founding member of Deep Purple.
A piano score of the vocal section of the second movement is also published.
Sarabande
Also available in print now is a newly revised and reprinted edition of Jon’s 2010 orchestral version of Sarabande, originally composed in 1974. The score, first published in 2014, now incorporates a number of corrections and improvements and is also available in Paul Mann’s transcription for solo piano, also published in print for the first time.
The performance material for both works will be available on hire from De Haske, with the scores available for sale.
All volumes can be ordered directly from De Haske Publishing:
Concerto for Group and Orchestra (orchestra)
Concerto for Group and Orchestra (piano and vocal)
Sarabande (orchestra)
Sarabande (piano)
The science and the art
Coming up here on JonLord.org you can read an interview with Paul Mann explaining the details of his work to revise Jon Lord’s scores. Paul Mann’s efforts amount to many months of work. The parts for Sarabande alone amount to 260 individual files, and the Concerto more than 100 files.
To make sure you don’t miss our in-depth interview with Paul Mann, please join our Newsletter.
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