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LOL check the Jimi Hendrix pic
Posted on Fri, Jan. 31, 2003
Lexington Philharmonic plays some '70s favorites
By Rich Copley
HERALD-LEADER ARTS WRITER
Merrilee Elliott of the Lexington Philharmonic burned a violin a la Jimi Hendrix. (Mark Cornelison/Staff)
The Lexington Philharmonic is in the business of playing timeless classics.
It's just that usually those pieces come from the 18th and 19th centuries.
The works the orchestra will present Saturday night are more like 20 to 30 years old, but maestro George Zack considers them no less timeless.
"These are great tunes," Zack says. "They stand the test of time."
He's referring to songs such as Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven and Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody -- the veritable Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and Handel's Messiah of rock 'n' roll.
In the rock 'n' roll spirit, the orchestra will be dressed casually, and the concert will feature a light show. The orchestra also will be augmented with guitar, bass and drums and touches such as a cash register for Pink Floyd's Money and the University of Kentucky Choristers for Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody -- go ahead, bang your head Wayne's World style.
Though taking up tunes by artists such as the Rolling Stones and the Doors might seem like a change of pace for the Phil, Zack says it's actually a sort of Lexington Philharmonic greatest hits show.
The arrangements the orchestra will trot out date back to the orchestra's Unplugged & Untied concerts, the predecessor to the Pops! series, which Saturday night's concert is a part of.
"I thought these arrangements would be played once," says Jay Flippin, Kentucky's uber-arranger who recast most of the songs on Saturday night's concert for orchestra. "I never thought they'd be together on one concert."
Zack says the genius of Flippin's arrangements is that while the pieces are being played by the same orchestra, they each have their own personalities -- an essential in rock 'n' roll.
The conductor points out that a lot of rock songs are driven by the personalities -- the wail of Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant, the brash funk of the Stones' Mick Jagger -- and without those presences, it's harder for the song to have an impact. So it takes a gifted arranger to overcome that.
For some of the musicians, this concert takes them back to their musical roots.
"If I practiced a bit, I could still play the guitar intro to Stairway to Heaven," says saxophonist Miles Osland, who was in garage bands at the same time he was in school band and orchestra.
Before he turned to a career in orchestral music and jazz, Osland says, his dream was to be Supertramp saxophonist John Helliwell.
Violinist Martha Blackburn recalls performing music by artists such as Pink Floyd and Lynyrd Skynyrd at Unplugged & Untied when she joined the Philharmonic as a University of Kentucky student.
"It breaks down stereotypes," says Blackburn, 23. "Whenever we do more modern music, the audience taps their feet and moves around a little bit more."
Blackburn, herself a pop music fan who favors Billy Joel, says rock fans who enjoy Saturday's concert should be able to find things to like in the Philharmonic's regular fare.
She and Osland agree that it's a shame people think they have to be stuck in certain genres. Hey, Stones guitarist Keith Richards is one of many rockers who have declared a love of classical fare.
"It's record stores and labels that need categories to know where to put the CDs," Osland says.
But to an open-minded listener, a timeless classic is a timeless classic, whether it was penned by Pink Floyd or Sergey Prokofiev.
If You Go
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'That '70s Rock Show'
Performers: The Lexington Philharmonic, conducted by George Zack, with guests the UK Choristers, featuring soloist James Grino.
When: 8 p.m. Saturday.
Where: UK Singletary Center for the Arts Concert Hall, Rose Street at Euclid Avenue.
Tickets: $12.50 to $35.
Phone: (859) 233-3535 until 3 p.m. today, (859) 257-4929 thereafter.
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