Deep Purple-In Concert with the London Symphony Orchestra (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Audio Discography Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	119:31
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (67:08)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Anthony Powell
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Deep Purple London Symphony Orchestra
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	$39.95	Music	Deep Purple

    My brother was a devoted fan of Deep Purple, and it was partly out of respect for him that I've agreed to review this DVD. I did remember at least two of their albums - Machinehead and Made in Japan.

    Deep Purple-In Concert with the London Symphony Orchestra was recorded live at The Royal Albert Hall during two concerts on 25 & 26 September 1999 where Deep Purple were joined by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Mann. These concerts featured the latest incarnation (Mark IX) containing:

• Ian Gillan (vocals)
• Roger Glover (bass)
• Jon Lord (keyboards)
• Steve Morse (guitar)
• Ian Paice (drums)

    Right from the start, we get the feeling that this is no ordinary Deep Purple concert. The opening number, Picture Within, features a rather lush, quiet, romantic and symphonic arrangement, not words you might ordinarily associate with the band! Fans of the band could be forgiven for wondering if they've stepped into some sort of bizarre parallel universe, or at least an episode of the Twilight Zone, or maybe they've wandered into a Three Tenors recital by mistake (the guest singer Miller Anderson even looks remarkably like Luciano Pavarotti!). The tempo doesn't become upbeat until Chapter 4 (Love is all), and most of the early songs feature guest singers (eg. Sam Brown, Ronnie James Dio) and even guest musicians - the "impromptu" jazz ensemble The Kick Horns with Annie Whitehead (trombone), Paul Spong (trumpet/flugelhorn), Roddy Lorimer (trumpet/flugelhorn), Simon C Clarke (baritone/alto sax/flute), and Tim Sanders (tenor/soprano sax).

The Concerto for Group and Orchestra sounds rather bombastic, but seems to me more like a pastiche of various themes from different classical periods rather than an integrated musical work. I'm glad to see Steve Morse strutting his stuff in the guitar solo in Movement I. By the way, this is the 30th anniversary live performance of the Concerto.

    Ted the Mechanic and Watching the Sky are more "traditional" Purple arrangements and Sometimes I feel like screaming features fairly good integration between the band and orchestra, plus a guitar solo from Steve Morse that really rocks the hall down. Pictures of home ends the concert, but of course we all know the night is not over until the band plays the perennial favourite Smoke on the water as an encore.

    In conclusion, "This is Deep Purple, Jim, but not as we know it."

Video

    The sharpness and detail is so good you can count the number of pores on the faces of the musicians during close ups.

    Likewise the colour saturation is superb and pretty much reference quality.

    Even though the video source looks remarkably clean, the transfer seems to be riddled with minor artefacts such as aliasing, shimmering and minor pixelization, particularly in dim situations.

    There are no subtitles on this disc, which is a pity as I wouldn't mind being able to view the lyrics to some of the songs.

    This is a single sided dual layer disc (RSDL). The layer change occurs at 67:08 between Chapters 7 and 8. This is mildly disruptive but as good a place as any since it is between songs.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    I found the dialogue in between songs to be fairly hard to follow, and of course Ian Gillian's singing style is such that I can't decipher the lyrics well.

    The audio quality is quite high, creating a full-bodied sound without sacrificing the ability for finer detail to come through. There is however a tendency for Jon Lord's organ to sound slightly distorted. The only thing I can complain about is that the very high frequencies seem slightly rolled off, perhaps in order to mask Dolby Digital high frequency artefacts.

    The surround mix rather aggressively positions the musicians and even vocals across all channels, creating the illusion that you are sitting amongst the musicians rather than in the audience - a rather disconcerting experience for me. The track will sound best if you have five full range speakers, as quite a lot of bass is directed even to the rear surround speakers, which is just as well since there is no separate low frequency channel.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

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