Jon Lord with the Band and Plock Symphonic Orchestra. Opening Of The X Plock Summer Music Festival The Old Market Square, Plock, Mazovia, Poland July 6th, 2008 Let's put things straight: Jon Lord is The Ultimate Maestro for your Reviewer, allright? It's no one else but him who made me fell in love with Deep Purple some 14 years ago and he endepthtened my mutual love for Hammond organ and keyboards. That's why it took me a while to get over the thunderous emotions witnessed over the July's Sunday. What it was really - a true dream coming real. It was never easy to get Ritchie B. for a chat but it was neither easy to be honoured to express warmness of the heart and grattitude for the wonderful music to the fairly unavailable Sir Jon. On that lovely day the early arrival to the Market Square granted us for the effort of early coming in to the event's place. We could participate in the general rehearsal. Most of the evening material was tried, the listeners could catch a glimpse of what was to be a magical evening. Masterful sound, and a brillant form of Mr. Lord - looking happy, healthy and in jolly, very friendly spirit towards his career followers. As the rehearsal ame to the end we were able to invite Jon to the edge of the stage, where he signed plenty of releases he took part in over the four decades. It was a bit intuitial, but we also managed to get our Maestro to the back of the stage where he did a short photo session with the bunch of the fan friends. Holding his 'magic fingers' hand and sharing a big smile to the lense of the camera with Jon will undoubtly be one of the happiest moments yours truly ever have winessed. We had to release the Hero for a meal and some rest and while then we secured the front row places to have the closest possible contact with what was to happen on stage. It was great to see many of the good old Purple Convention friends around, who made it easier to stand the slowlt ticking time while the eagerness for the event to start arose. Right before the concert started there was once again a little glimpse of rehearsal and at the 7 pm the Organiser took the stage to introduce the event (too lenghtily in taste of many). As the impatience of the audience went heavily tested - it all acumulated into a thunderous welcoming of the Lord's ensemble. The rock section band consisted of young session musicans and was crowned with two fabulous voices of Kasha (Catherine) Laska and Yatzek (Jack) Kotlarski who took the vocal duties in Jon's material. The orchestra was condcted by Misha Damev, a Swiss director who worked lately with Jon on his symphonic projects. While the pressure was breaking youngs bones at the first stage, Misha conducted the Symphonics with the amusing fire. It was lovely to hear the 'Concerto For Group And Orchestra' for the second time in the country (1st time was the last night with the orchestra during Purple late 2000 'Concerto' tour) - this time in complete shape. What I can say is: you'd tell that Deep Purple plays this piece with far more confident feel and swing. But any session musicans who can handle this difficult material that well - they must be bowed and applauded for the effort. Bar the drummer sadly, who's thick cut bashing was out of place and the drums solos were dreadful. Nevertheless the overall feeling remained strongly positive. Jon did a huge work to conduct the youngs with the 'body language', while Damev and orchestra thundered through like a dream. One could not pass noting the Jon's Hammond solos in each Movement that were beatifully controlled and sharp driven as well. That definitely was the hardest part of the show to come through for all of the performers. As the evening continued the atmosphere loosened a bit although most of the reflective material from 'Pictured Within' and 'Beyond The Notes' was still demanding a dose of concentration from the audience. The balance of the contlemplation mood and the listenability was well kept however. Kudos have to go to the young vocalists who did an adorable job - Kasia shone in 'One From The Meadow' and 'Wait A While' and for many she was beating off Sam Brown's originals. She had a much more audible freedom in phrasing while using as lovely scale as Sam. And Jacek did a much more soulfull voicing in 'Pictured Within' than Miller Anderson did, but his vocal line integrated with the sonic picture beatifully. Anyway it looked like it was the material from Jon's piece de resistance, 1976's 'Sarabande', that was the most enjoyable for the audience. "Pavane" has gained an enormous dose of feeling thanks to slight rearranging of the instrumental approach to it. The timy drum tinks along with the change of the tempo accents gave it a bit of slow swingy jazz feel - alltogether it sounded like a new composition - utterly charming. I personally have enjoyed "Gigue" the most - absolutely storming version with the fabulous guitar and organ parts and the fanatic (in a positive sense) orchestral backing. Oh, forget the drum extravaganza - it was close to destroy the monumento completely, but the finale did save the day for this classic. "Sarabande" and "Bouree" are the classics to themselves - the only pity for these two is the ommision of the improvised solo parts in each of the two. The latter did well the function of a thunderous gig finale - it worked like a voodoo ritual on Misha Damev, who at the end was flowing with his conductor's body over the orchestra. Amazingly intense and moving at the same time. Most of the audience were on their feet in that moment roaringly applouding the evening's Hero. But that was not OVER yet. Now take a time to imagine that some space capsule takes you back to 1970. What can a Purple fan dream of in such circumstances? Intuitively you can tell... First three notes on the Hammond blasted everybody's mind and next ten minutes were absolutely unreal. It will remain a mystery to me how the hell has Jon done that - it must be his mutual magic. It was not 'Child In Time' done by Mr. Lord, three session men, two singers and the orchhestra. They all came perfectly united in the piece, making the result unarguably the most powerful reendiotion of this anthem that has ever happened in at least past 25 years . The combo of female-male unisoned voices handled Gillan's part flawlessly, the young guitarist caught a flaring fire in his fingers and his solo was a nuke, blitzing with Blackmore - Satriani feel. All this spinned by a monsterous Hammond sound with Jon blistering fingerwork, and a wide smile on Lord's face, every second. The crowd has been thrown to their knees and the farewell with Jon Lord was long and emotional. I did what I could to describe this to you, but honestly speaking this isn't expressible at all. A hypersensual, mind-smashing expirience. I made a remark to Jon during the rehearsal that whenever I watch him on the 'Live Encounters' (it was a second to debut of the Morse line-up show in Poland) doing a solo on the piano with Chopin bits in it - it always makes me cry with bits of the real tears. (Frederic Chopin is regarded as a Poland's most famous composer in country's history, so citing him as a tribute to the land and the nation is usually moving for the audience). Jon then said to me: 'If so - then I'll try to make you cry tonight'. Those who were with me in front of the stage after 'Child...' - they saw the tears in my eyes - believe it or not - it's up to you. You kept your promise Jon, I thank you for that gift from the bottom of the fan heart and soul. It will take a day after the whole life BEFORE I FORGET this day and it wonders. (C) (P) Sunredsun Set: 1. Concerto For Group And Orchestra: First movement (Moderato - Allegro) 2. Concerto For Group And Orchestra: Second movement (Andante) 3. Concerto For Group And Orchestra: Third movement (Vivace - Presto) 4. Jon's Welcome 5. Sarabande 6. Pavane 7. One From The Meadow (dedicated to Sam Brown, who's undergoing the throat surgery) - Kasia Laska on vocals 8. The Telemann's Experiment 9. Wait A While - Kasia Laska on vocals 10. Pictured Within - Jacek Kotlarski on vocals 11. Gigue 12. ovation I and flowers for Jon and Misha 13. Bouree 14. ovation II 15. Child In Time
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