Customer Reviews

A Classic Case: The London Symphony Orchestra Plays The Music Of Jethro Tull, Featuring Ian Anderson

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is an example of how an orchestra can swing!David Palmer and Tull members shine on moving numbers like Elegy and Fly By Night.The symphonic treatment of Locomotive Breath and Aqualung is something special for Tull lovers to hear.Music lovers in general will really like this great sounding album.

A Classic Case had great potential. David Palmer, who had worked with the group for years, had expressed an interest in doing something really different with the music. Unfortunately, the record company tried to make it "more commercial" but having versions of popular, but unfortunately not very classically oriented songs put on the album. Aqualung, Locomotive Breath, and Living In The Past are great songs, to be sure, but they don't translate well into a classical enviroment. This is such a shame, because there are so many Tull songs that do. Flying Dutchman would have been beautiful, moths, requiem, My God, Velvet Green, or about half of the rest of Tull's songs would have been wonderful. However, I am giving this album 3 Stars because of 1 BRILLIANT track. Warchild is worth the price of admission. It is absolutely wonderful, sharing a lot with the original but at the same time being completely different. SOme other tracks, like Elegy, Too Old To Rock, and Fly By Night are quite good, but the "old standards" are almost painful. Especially Aqualung(*shudder*)

This CD is a keeper! David Palmer is a very sharp and talented musician and arranger. He has done a masterful job of re-creating Tull's best songs in the clasical genre. From the most sensitive and soft of Ian Anderson's compositions, the the most awe inspiring, conquering passages... they are all portrayed with the full grandeur that they deserve. A must have CD for both classical, and Tull fans!

This was the first CD of it's type that I bought, way back when it was first issued in the mid 80's.

It spoiled me. Attempts with other artists seem to be too much like elevator music.

"A Classic Case..." is tight, it has energy, but it's an orchestra. I particularly liked "Fly by night".

A wide range of ages will enjoy this.

I'll be buying a replacement on my next order, as mine is wearing out.

whimsical renditions performed nicely, in my humble opinion. Not all rock-meets-classical projects are this well-conceived or executed.

I enjoy it.

First of all, this is NOT a Jethro Tull album, but ex-Tull-er David Palmer's first foray into orchestral interpretations of rock music. It was apparently coming along so poorly, he got Ian Anderson and most of 'Tull to play alonside the London Symphony Orchestra. The arrangements are virtually unchanged from the 'Tull originals, which destroys the whole concept. The only thing missing is the vocals. The one standout exception: Warchild. This one track represents perfectly what the whole project should have been about...almost enough to recommend acquisition. Even Ian says he's never played this. ANY 'Tull album is better.

I first heard this cd over ten years ago and immediatly fell in love with the jazzy rock sound of a full symphony. I had no idea at the time that it was in fact Jethro Tull music set to classical music. When I learned this, I found a new and amazing side of music I hadn't heard before. (I was ten at the time). Now as a young adult I respect this album as the origin of my appreciations for J Tull and even as some of the pieces drag (elegy and fly by night)I still enjoy it immensly. Of course a normal listener of J Tull would be disappointed. This isn't their type of music. But if you are looking for a new direction, this is a recording worth trying.

If you like Tull and you love classical music, this is a must for your collection. The arangemets for the orchestra are masterfully executed. Truly powerful. The music will touch you.

A friend of mine once said, "Sometimes the London Symphony Orchestra isn't the London Symphony Orchestra" in reference to soundtrack work, referring to the fact (?) that the actual music you hear in the film isn't always what you get on the album that IS performed by the LSO.

"A Classic Case" makes me wonder if that goes for released recordings as well. While the concept of the London Symphony Orchestra doing Jethro Tull SHOULD be really, really cool, the end result is so limp it's as if one is stuck in an elevator listening to the Muzak. It's better-than-average Muzak, but it still doesn't rise above that level. The brass section is particularly pathetic.

The only tracks which have any interesting qualities to them is the rendition of "Too Old for Rock n Roll; Too Young To Die" and "War Child." Every other track is lifeless and plodding. It's almost like listening to a university orchestra with an uninspired arrenger and a tired conductor.

There's at least a 40-year history of orchestral/rock collaboration that I'm familiar with (and I'm sure those interested in pre-late60s music could tell you more than I about the early days . . .). On the one hand, there's the full-on collaboration of a rock band and orchestra, as in Deep Purple's 1969 "Concerto For Group & Orchestra", Iced Earth's "Gettysburg" from the early 2000s, and many works by bands like the Moody Blues and Nightwish. This stuff stands up pretty well as works of art it was written for that combination, and both the orchestra and rock band have something to say. On the other hand, there's the "BAND plays with an orchestra" type stuff where they do a greatest hits package with the orchestra and band playing together on songs that weren't arranged for that purpose. It works OK for bands like Metallica and the Scorpions, because they're pretty much guitar/bass/drums so the orchestral backing adds color (and Metallica's classic stuff was pretty monophonic to begin with - the bass, rhythm guitar, and vocals were pretty much working on the same riff, and the second guitar came in sparingly outside of "solos") and fleshes out the arrangement.
But, Jethro Tull is a band who's orchestrations and arrangements are top-notch. Their songs are known for having a wide variety of musical voices (flute, piano, various other keyboards, a string section, soprano sax, accordion, etc., etc.), and the various musicians play an intricate arrangement of harmony, counterpoint, and such. So, if you were to do an orchestral album of Tull music, you'd want to just have it be an orchestra, or what's the point? We've already heard Tull played by a mix of rock and acoustic instruments on the original albums!
Sadly, that's what went wrong here. There's drums, bass, guitar, etc. "Bouree" goes between sections of baroque classical (but, then, having an orchestra play Bach is hardly something unique) and the members of Tull playing the jazzy section like they normally do. Why buy and album that has music you already have? "Fly By Night" starts with sythesizer and has drum (or drum machine) throughout, as the original was already rather symphonic influenced (albeit by synths), the treat here would've been to hear the orchestra playing it. "Elegy" was also pretty much an orchestral piece to start, so doing it with an orchestra was kind of redundant. Might've been cool live, but I didn't need an almost-identical recording.
For me, if I buy an album with songs I already have on it, I do so to hear them in a different context, not to hear them sound as "close as possible" to the original.
That's not to say the CD is all bad. The original songs are good music, so a different arrangement well played is still good music (I just don't have much reason to listen to this rather than the original). There are some nice passages where the orchestra sounds good, and the "Warchild" piece at the end IS what this album should've been full of. (Interestingly enough, an orchestral piece called the "Warchild Waltz" popped up on the re-release of that album that is also wonderful).
I would be much more interested in hearing a recording of the "Water's Edge" ballet music written by David Palmer, Ian Anderson, and Martin Barre during their mid-70s creative heyday. Come one, Dee Palmer - give us your best art, not something watered down!