Beatles Go Baroque

Peter Breiner (Composer), Peter Breiner (Conductor) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Conductor: Peter Breiner
• Composer: Peter Breiner
• Audio CD (February 20, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naxos
• ASIN: B000056PQ2
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,000 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique Beatles interpretation, February 28, 2001

By 

CMS "mr_keiichi" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beatles Go Baroque (Audio CD)

This is the CD for serious listeners of classical music AND serious listeners of the Beatles. Where pops orchestras have failed, Peter Breiner succeeds. His arrangements of Beatles songs, rather than being simply rock band transcriptions for orchestra, are more like unique compositions based on Beatles themes.

Don't let the "looseness" of these arrangements scare you off, however. They are a good exercise for the ear -- can YOU pick out the melody among the busy melodic textures that are integral to Baroque music? With some pieces it's easier than others. The CD kicks off with an jaunty rendition of "She Loves You" that defies all other interpretations of it, orchestral or otherwise. From this point on you know you're in for a very different sort of Beatles trip.

The songs are wisely divided between fast and slow movements -- all of them being a treat for the ear. Among the best fast movements are robust renditions of "Help," "Lady Madonna," and a witty "Yellow Submarine." On the slow end of the spectrum, "And I Love Her" is supremely beautiful on violin, and "The Long and Winding Road" comes out so elegantly that it puts the original version of the song to shame. However, the cleverest track on the album has to be "Michelle." Taking the main theme of the song, Peter Breiner's orchestra creates a perfect FOUR-PART COUNTERPOINT! Of course, this technical term means little to most listeners, but it basically means that you have to hear "Michelle" to believe it.

The grouping of the songs into "Concerto Grosso" format is a clever touch, allowing listeners to see how the Beatles' music might have fit into a Baroque framework. Some might call it pretentious, but I call it good marketing. For serious fans of classical music, it shows that the arranger really knows what he's doing. The "styles" aren't exactly anything special; the Vivaldi one IS written as a violin concerto but there isn't much else to differentiate the various Concertos. Then again, does it really matter? This isn't about the great Baroque composers -- it's about the Beatles!

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Neat-o, November 11, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Beatles Go Baroque (Audio CD)

*Beatles Go Baroque* is a playful CD, in the same category as the *Christmas Goes Baroque* series produced by the same people. Although the music on this disc is more than mere orchestral arrangements of Beatles tunes, it's not in any way a serious study of baroque style. It is much more a play with polyphonic texture. The forms are not strict--no strict fugues, canons, ritornelli, etc. In other words, this disc is not a cerebral "Let's see how Bach would have handled 'Michelle' as a three-part canon with a free bass" type of study--it is, after all, categorized as "Light Classics." It would be quite a feat, however, to spin some of these songs into full-scale concerti grossi, for the Beatles tunes do not seem to lend themselves very well to baroque treatments. If you were to play this disc to someone who's never heard of the Beatles but who knows classical music (not sure where to find someone like that), he would not mistaken these works for true baroque compositions. While Peter Breiner has made some ingenius amalgamations (for instance, you think you're about to hear the Bourrée from Bach's second Overture, and suddenly "We can Work It Out" turns up), he's also made quite a few stylistic compromises in his transformation of the Beatles songs. The play on Handel and Vivaldi do not work quite so well. The always recognizable Vivaldi harmonic and virtuosic flair seems to have been lost for the most part, with the exception of a vague resemblance of the "Spring" concerto for three of its movements, most recognizably the middle movement for "And I Love Her." The style of Handel seems to be playing off of parts of "Alexander's Feast" concerto, but not very strongly. Breiner seems to be most comfortable when writing without a particular composer's style in mind, such as with the fourth concerto grosso (although the notes mention it could be interpreted as Corelli's). The Bachian concerto, however, is recognizably Bach because it is almost a movement-by-movement translation of not a concerto but Bach's Overture no. 2. "She's Leaving Home," done in the style of a sarabande as one of the movements, is a beautiful, poignant work by itself. In fact, many of these pieces could by themselves be musically elegant and charming without the gimmick of Beatles tunes done in eighteenth century fashion. But while the four so-called concerti grossi here are a curious listen for both Beatles fans and baroque music fans alike, with the baroque style watered down, Beatles fans will probably get more out of hearing Beatles tunes put through the contrapuntal exercise. Serious baroque fans will just have to make do with light fun.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A WELL ESTABLISHED TRADITION, April 30, 2004

By 

Richard "Alice Collector" (Blackpool England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beatles Go Baroque (Audio CD)

The Beatles had hardly been going for 5 minutes before the Liverpool chamber group led by Fritz Speigl decided to put out a Baroque piece called "Eine Kleine Beatlesmusik" plus another called "The Beatlecracker Suite" and this was before the Americans had a go via Joshua Rifkins's "Baroque Beatles Book" on the Nonesuch label (which included the "Last Night I said..." Canata.
Fact is if you plough through the Goldberg Variations of Bach you will discover one that plays the first 6 notes of "She loves you" in exactly the same rhythm!!!