By james art Conductor: Stuart Morley
Symphonic Magical Mystery Tour.
The jury’s still out on whether tonight all you need is actually love at the Fab Four retro-fest (counterintuitive) 
there is no need for vocals at all. No disrespect to the lovable quartet who are too young to remember the ensemble. An odd mention, perhaps, of a cracker named Nicole Raquel Dennis, whose nuclear-enriched copper penny evening dress complements the magnificently backlit Symphony Hall grand organ. How many Beatles covers are worth remembering? The marmalades About La Dimaybe? Something for dads to conduct along with his pipe (no Pan’s people, obviously) or, even better, Joe Cocker’s pyrotechnic antics at Woodstock With a little help from my friends. Please reply to a postcard.
One hundred and forty minutes of running time – the clock is ticking – twenty four tracks for a crazy mix. Conductor Stuart Morley and the CBSO, feeling like they’re getting better all the time of their lives, catch their breath, register leaves turning in feverish excitement, as if the podiums are troubled by rabid flocks of crisp-winged pigeons. The audience is also troubled by how the BSL interpreter, Sarah Butt, explains it all. Given the average age of the audience, the lyrics are now DNA patented. It should be noted that there is hardly a young face to be seentonight – noticed or not.
There’s even a Beatles quiz available in the cozy, compact program notes: here are a few particular teasers that even outwitted a seasoned worshiper tonight, who remembers queuing all night with her mother from the Odeon Box Office to Digbeth and beyond for her October 12, 1964 sells a ticket worth fifteen grand. Those were the days when dynamic pricing involved asking parents to bid your Christmas present early for a Beatles show. Ticketmaster, anyone? (We always give you our money).
“What was the Beatles’ best-selling single?* The first song broadcast into deep space was a Beatles song. Who?’** Answers below – no cheating!
Both sets are insightfully punctuated with dynamic overtures, gliding through melodies, riffs and phrases that betray collective memories with incandescent vibrancy and excitement. Did the Beatles really invent the concept of rock and roll’s killer riff? Day trip m’ Lud? The set after a space is specified as Intermission – obviously chic for “Here’s one of our previous albums.”
There’s a charming distraction as the band and vocals pay lavish tribute to Harrison’s life-affirming heartbreaker, Here comes the sun – there are two giddy girls up in the gallery of the organ room, giving it a 60s dance beat with the tiniest subliminal hint of the iconic HELP! album cover with guys spelling out the eponymous title with a traffic light. honestly!
If tonight’s concert pulls at the strings of the past, then Ian MacDonald’s 1994 Seeds. A revolution in the head (Fourth Estate) provides a forensic breakdown of the Beatles catalog with a gloss of studio/musicological analysis. Nevertheless, local boy did well, musician/prolific author, Daniel Rachel (actually from Solihull, but he imagines roughing it with the Brummy Blinders) – his delightful extended hypothetical riff on what might have been, The Lost Beatles Album – What if the Beatles hadn’t broken up? (Cassell/Octopus, 2023) prompts all manner of geek and beyond meta-informed speculation. It takes him 141 out of 368 pages to get to his disputed speculative playlist Concept. Post-Christmas dinner lounge quiz, anyone?
After a brief interlude in which conductor Stuart Morley shared an anecdote relating to a trip to New York with his father, the evening turned into a fitting celebration of snacks, a mixed celebration of Sergeant Pepper tunes culminating in the appropriate, oceanic excitement of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. The Organ Attic Dancing Angels have been there, seen it and done it. It’s a great move – naturally. Carpe Diem – Tomorrow you never know.
*I want to hold your hand. **Across the Universe.
Reviewed October 25, 2024