Coming Up: 'Various Artists: Changing My Scene - Art Music and the Beatles - From Stockhausen to the Goons' 3-CD Box Set

It's another Beatles-inspired set from Cherry Records, out in March.

Details:

"The Beatles have developed into the single most creative force in pop music. Wherever they go, the pack follows. And where they have gone in recent months, not even their most ardent supporters would ever have dreamed of. They have bridged the heretofore impassable gap between rock and classical, mixing elements of Bach, Oriental and electronic music with vintage twang to achieve the most compellingly original sounds ever heard in pop music." Time Magazine 1967

"What matters to me is whether the music is good, not whether it's classical or jazz or flamenco." Paul McCartney

"Because we knew that the Beatles wouldn't ever have to play the songs live, there were no creative boundaries." Geoff Emerick, chief sound engineer at Abbey Road

At the end of August 1966, The Beatles gave the final formal concert performance of their career at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

They were mentally and physically exhausted by the rigours of touring; their weariness compounded by a dissatisfaction at the quality of their concerts, not helped by the relatively primitive sound technology of the time. They therefore decided to retire from public performance in order to devote themselves to working with George Martin at Abbey Road. With their groundbreaking album ‘Revolver’ already in the can, The Beatles were eager to resume their investigations into the new art of pop.

This they did with unequalled originality, a panache that culminated in ‘Sgt. Pepper'; the most ambitious and most successful record album ever issued.

The Beatles' pioneering would involve the assimilation of musical and cultural influences from well beyond the realm of mainstream pop; from modernist composers in the fields of electronics, Musique Concrète and Serialism (Stockhausen, Berio, Cage, Stravinsky, Varese, Schaeffer, Henry and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop); from the Late Romantic and Impressionist eras (Debussy, Ravel, Mahler, Sibelius); from the outer limits of Jazz (Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Albert Ayler); from the perfumed gardens of Indian Classical Music (Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan); from such diverse and singular literary figures as Lewis Carroll, Aldous Huxley and Dylan Thomas to the anarchic Surrealist comedy of The Goons.

TRACK LISTING

DISC ONE

1  JULIAN BREAM - Two Almaines

2  KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN - Gesang der Jünglinge

3  JOHN CAGE - Fontana Mix

4  IANNIS XENAKIS - Metastasis (excerpt) (SWR Symphony Orchestra-Hans Rosbaud)

5  EDGARD VARÈSE - Poème électronique

6  LUCIANO BERIO - Thema (Omaggio a Joyce)

7  GUSTAV MAHLER - In ruhig fliessender Bewegung: Symphony No. 2 in C minor (Philharmonia Orchestra-Otto Klemperer)

8  JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH - Allegro assai: Brandenburg Concerto No.2 in F major (Philharmonia Orchestra-Otto Klemperer)

9  BERNARD HERRMANN - Prelude / The Murder (from Psycho)

10  DELIA DERBYSHIRE - Time On Our Hands

11  DAPHNE ORAM - Ursa Major (Sun Mix)

12  PIERRE SCHAEFFER AND PIERRE HENRY - L’Oiseau RAI (R.A.I. Bird)

13  JEAN SIBELIUS - Symphony No. 7 in C Major: Part IV. Vivace-Presto-Adagio (Philadelphia Orchestra-Eugene Ormandy)

14  FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN - Nocturnes Op.15 No.3 in G Minor: Lento (Jan Smeterlin)

15  LEWIS CARROLL - Looking Glass Insects (excerpt), from Alice Through The Looking Glass (Jane Asher)

 

DISC TWO

1  IGOR STRAVINSKY - The Royal March, from L'Histoire du Soldat (Columbia Chamber Ensemble-Igor Stravinsky)

2  CLAUDE DEBUSSY - Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un faune (Orchestre de la Suisse Romande-Ernest Ansermet) MAURICE RAVEL Daphnis Et Chloé Suite 2

3  Lever du jour (Daybreak)

4  Pantomime

5  Danse générale (Philharmonia Orchestra / Guido Cantelli)

6  ERIK SATIE - Sarabande No. 2 (Francis Poulenc) IGOR STRAVINSKY Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) (Philharmonia Orchestra-Igor Markevitch) 

Part One: Adoration of The Earth

7  Introduction

8  The Augurs of Spring, Dances Of The Young Girls

9  Dance of Abduction

10  Spring Rounds

11  Ritual Of The Rival Tribes

12  Procession Of The Sage

13  The Sage

14  Dance To The Earth Part Two: The Sacrifice

15  Introduction

16  Mystic Circles of the Young Girls

17  Glorification of the Chosen One

18  Evocation of The Ancestors

19  Ritual Action of The Ancestors Sacrificial Dance

20  Sacrificial Dance

21  CLAUDE DEBUSSY - Gardens in the Rain (Walter Gieseking)

22  FREDERICK DELIUS - On Hearing the First Cuckoo In Spring (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra-Sir Thomas Beecham)

23  GUSTAV HOLST - Venus, TheBringer of Peace, from The Planets (Philharmonic Promenade Orchestra-Sir Adrian Boult)

24  IGOR STRAVINSKY - Galliarde, from Agon, ballet for twelve dancers (SWR Symphony Orchestra-Hans Rosbaud)

 

DISC THREE

1  NAT KING COLE - Nature Boy

2  ORNETTE COLEMAN QUARTET - Embraceable You

3  JOHN COLTRANE QUINTET WITH ERIC DOLPHY - My Favorite Things (Birdland, New York)

4  HUMPHREY LYTTELTON - Bad Penny Blues

5  RAVI SHANKAR - Kafi-Holi (Spring Festival Of Colors)

6 ALI AKBAR KHAN - Raga Pilu Baroowa (excerpt)

7  RAVI SHANKAR - Raga Marwa (1948 78rpm version)

8  THE GOONS - Unchained Melody

9  DJANGO REINHARDT & STÉPHANE GRAPPELLI - Tears

10 ALDOUS HUXLEY - The Ultimate Revolution (excerpt)

11 ALBERT AYLER - Tune Up

12  DYLAN THOMAS - Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

13  PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY - Romeo and Juliet: Fantasy Overture (excerpt) (Philharmonia)