Customer Reviews

Working Classical by Paul McCartney [VHS]

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This video is the recording of the premiere of Working Classical in Liverpool at the Royal Philharmonic Hall, on October 16, Saturday 1999. The unique feature of the video is a 3-minute introduction by Paul, mainly about Liverpool and his childhood there. His memorable buildings are shown such as the Cathedral where he failed an audition for the choir, and his school where LIPA runs today.
Paul also introduces the first song, Junk, however later songs are not introduced, he is shown once sitting in the audience, and you can see him to return to the stage at the end applause.
The songs are performed by the American Loma Mar Quartet or by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrea Quinn. The running order of the songs is the same as on the CD, however we can see and hear an encore of "Lovely Linda".
The music is wonderful, "Junk" is from his first solo album, also performed at MTV Unplugged, "A Leaf" is a classical piece, previously performed by Anya Alexeyev on piano at St. James's Palace, London in 1995, "Haymakers", "Midwife", "Spiral" are new compositions that show Paul's love for classical music since working on Standing Stone, "Warm and beautiful" is a less known love song from Wings at the Speed of Sound, Elvis Costello also sung it at the Linda memorial concert, "My Love" and "Maybe I'm Amazed" don't require introduction. The surprise is that three love songs are also included from his recent albums, "Golden Earth Girl" from Off the Ground, "Calico Skies" and "Somedays" from Flaming Pie. "Tuesday" is the fourth new composition, and the concert closes with the uptempo "She's My Baby" and 1-minute "The Lovely Linda".
The video comes with a nice 16-page colour booklet (hard to put it into the paper sleeve), same content as with the CD release, although there are differences because in the video Andrea Quinn conducts always the LSO. I strongly recommend this video to everyone who loves Paul's love songs; it's a mystery why it's been released only on VHS and only in the USA.

Great video, great music, doubtlessly Sir Paul McCartney is universal, a complete musician, its musical potential is so variable that it can surprise to us from a good Rock & Roll, a beautiful ballad, a heavy song until a classic music. If you are loving of this type of sort, Working Classical is a great masterful piece. With this third classic album, Sir Paul McCartney will be immortalized like Mozart and Beethoven.