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Rock n roll history - It happened exactly 5 years ago4 March 2014, 23:40
Exactly five years ago, on March 4 2009, an important chapter was added to that great big history book of rock music - Deep Purple's iconic character, organist/composer Jon Lord brought his magical sympho rock act to Hungary for the first time. In the centre of the set was the Maestro's very own "Concerto for Group and Orchestra", the piece that was the first in the world in 1969 to place a rock band and a symphonic orchestra on the same stage to compete and to cooperate, namely Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Arnold. It was not until 40 years later that the anniversary Concerto tour reached the "eastern block", where in Budapest it completely sold out the Palace Of Arts, blowing away the Hungarian crowd (and the many foreign visitors) by its unique crossover of the two different genres. The participants of the historic Eastern European premiére included singers Steve Balsamo (Wales) and Kasia Łaska (Poland), and the all-Hungarian line-up of Danubia Symphony Orchestra, conductor Márton Rácz, and Cry Free to go along with the great composer himself. To celebrate the 5th anniversary of the event and the memory of Jon, who passed away in the summer of 2012, we are giving you the recordings of the complete second half of this unforgettable evening. Enjoy!
