FROM YESTERDAY TO PENNY
LANE
LENNON & McCARTNEY
1. Norwegian Wood
2. In My Life
3. Can't Buy Me Love
4. The Long And Winding Road
5. I Will
6. Come Together*
7. I Want To Hold Your Hand*
8. Help!*
GEORGE MARTIN
9-11 Three American Sketches
Arranged for guitar and strings
LEO BROUWER
From Yesterday to Penny Lane.
7 Songs after the Beatles arranged for guitar and strings
12. She's Leaving Home
13. A Ticket To Ride
14. Here, There And Everywhere
15. Yesterday
16. Got To Get You Into My Life
17. Eleanor Rigby
18. Penny Lane
GORAN SOLLSCHER - Guitar
PER ARNE GLORVIGEN - Bandoneon*
Members of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra/Mats
Rondin
DG 459
692-2
Crotchet
AmazonUK
AmazonUS
Lennon and McCartney together must be one of, if not the greatest contributors
of composition to popular music. Along with the Beatles producer George Martin
they influenced not one but possibly every generation of music makers since
their emergence in the early '60s.
Leo Brouwer, the Cuban guitarist/composer whose broad musical views take
in so many aspects of music, recognised Lennon and McCartney early on, and
included arrangements of their music in his concerts, (at least one of which
" Fool on the Hill" was recorded by John Williams [MK 45538]). So this collection
of personalities, together with the featured Goran Sollscher, one of Sweden's
premier guitarists makes for a formidable collaboration of musical talents.
Basically the disc is divided into four distinct sections, the opening tracks
finds Sollscher playing five arrangements for solo guitar. These, for the
most part, are successful, the lyricism of the slower pieces working well,
especially "In My Life" where the harpsichord solo of the original is faithfully
retained, only "Can't Buy me Love" fails to engage, possibly because the
tempo chosen for the piece requires a certain swing that Sollscher just doesn't
make sound convincing.
The next three selections are probably the most unusual due to the pairing
of guitar and bandoneon, a type of concertina. In the hands of Per Arne Glorvigen
the bandoneon displays a variety of expressive moods: from the strident,
as in "Come Together" to the gentle "I Want To Hold Your Hand" where the
players elect to transform the Beatles original almost demanding delivery
of the title words into a tender loving request. Good stuff.
The inclusion of George Martin's composition "Three American Sketches" makes
for a nice interlude in the proceedings. Not so well known for his composing
as for his producing skills this piece does show Martin's understanding of
a style that is very much in the tradition of 20th century American
music, such as Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland.
The subtitle '7 Songs After the Beatles' is so appropriate to the collection
of arrangements by Leo Brouwer as there is as much of Brouwer here as Lennon
and McCartney. Certainly the tunes are the product of the Liverpool songsmiths
but Brouwer's orchestral textures mark them with his own strong individual
character. Never afraid to occasionally allow the orchestra to take the melody,
the guitar's accompanying role always reinforces the proceedings. An orchestral
episode in "Ticket To Ride" is very much as we heard in his "Concerto de
Toronto" and the use of cannon at the beginning of "Eleanor Rigby" is a delight
All in all, a very well produced, entertaining recording, however I do feel
that novelty is an over-riding factor with this type of disc. It is after
all only one in a long line of records where the music of Lennon and McCartney
has been given one sort of treatment or another. I don't know which sector
of the music-buying public this disc likely to appeal to. However I do wish
it well.
Andy Daly
