Deep Purple - In Concert with The London Symphony Orchestra (2000)
Deep Purple – In Concert with The London Symphony Orchestra (2000)
Live symphonic rock at the Royal Albert Hall
Deep Purple’s In Concert with The London Symphony Orchestra stands as one of the most ambitious musical intersections in the band’s storied career. Released on 8 February 2000, this double live album captures the legendary English hard rock band performing with the world-renowned London Symphony Orchestra at London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall on 25–26 September 1999. The project fused classical music and rock in a grand celebration, honoring both Deep Purple’s heritage and keyboardist Jon Lord’s pioneering vision of combining rock with orchestral forces — a vision first realized in the band’s groundbreaking Concerto for Group and Orchestra from 1969.
Clocking in at over two hours of music across two discs, this release isn’t just another live album — it’s a genre-bridging event that showcased the band’s versatility and honored their appreciation for classical structure without forsaking their trademark hard rock intensity.
📀 Mini Album Review
At its heart, In Concert with The London Symphony Orchestra is a celebration of musical breadth and legacy. The album balances solo works from band members and guests with full-band performances and the epic Concerto for Group and Orchestra — a piece that alone commands entire sections of the second disc.
The performance excels when both worlds — rock and classical — communicate rather than collide. The orchestra enhances the emotional scope of Deep Purple staples like “Pictures of Home” and “Smoke on the Water,” adding a symphonic depth that amplifies the drama of these well-loved songs. Meanwhile, the full realization of the Concerto — reconstructed after the original score was lost — stands as a testament to Jon Lord’s insistence on bridging the genres once again, 30 years after the original performance’s premiere.
However, the album isn’t without critics. Some fans and reviewers felt the orchestral integration could dilute the raw edge typical of Deep Purple’s live performances, and that certain tracks felt more like homage than reinvention. Still, for listeners open to orchestral reinterpretation, this concert offers remarkable arrangements and emotional heft.
Overall, it’s a daring and emotionally resonant project that defies strict genre labeling — part rock concert, part classical suite, and entirely Deep Purple.
🎶 Tracklist (Standard 2-CD Edition)
Disc 1
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Pictured Within
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Wait a While
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Sitting in a Dream
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Love Is All
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Via Miami
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That’s Why God Is Singing the Blues
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Take It Off the Top
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Wring That Neck
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Pictures of Home
Disc 2
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Concerto for Group and Orchestra — Movement I
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Concerto for Group and Orchestra — Movement II
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Concerto for Group and Orchestra — Movement III
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Ted the Mechanic
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Watching the Sky
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Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
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Smoke on the Water
📊 Album Performance & Grossing
While In Concert with The London Symphony Orchestra wasn’t a blockbuster on a global sales scale, it did chart in several countries upon its release:
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#32 on the German Albums Chart
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#65 on the Swiss Albums Chart
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#86 on the Dutch Albums Chart
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#101 on the UK Albums Chart
These placements reflect strong interest, especially in continental Europe, where both Deep Purple and orchestral crossover projects enjoy passionate audiences. Specific worldwide sales figures and certifications are not widely documented, but its chart impacts illustrate a respectable moderate commercial reception for a live concert recording of this scale.
🎙️ Album Credits
Deep Purple
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Ian Gillan – Vocals
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Steve Morse – Guitar
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Jon Lord – Keyboards
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Roger Glover – Bass
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Ian Paice – Drums
The London Symphony Orchestra
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Conducted by Paul Mann
Guest Performers & Additional Musicians
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Ronnie James Dio – Vocals on select tracks
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Sam Brown – Lead/backing vocals on “Wait a While”
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Miller Anderson – Lead vocals on “Pictured Within”
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Graham Preskett – Violin
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Steve Morris – Guitar (on “That’s Why God Is Singing the Blues”)
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Annie Whitehead – Trombone
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Paul Spong & Roddy Lorimer – Trumpet/Flugelhorn
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Simon C. Clarke & Tim Sanders – Saxophones/Flute
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Dave LaRue – Bass
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Van Romaine – Drums
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Backing vocals: Aitch McRobbie, Margo Buchanan, Pete Brown
Production
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Produced by Deep Purple
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Recorded at The Manor Mobile
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Engineered & Mixed by Shaun Defeo & Will Shapland at Real World Studios
🎉 Fun Facts & Trivia
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🎻 Lost and Found: Part of the motivation for this project was Jon Lord’s desire to revisit the Concerto for Group and Orchestra from 1969. The original orchestral score had been lost, so Lord partnered with Dutch musicologist Marco de Goeij to painstakingly recreate it by ear from recordings.
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🎤 Special Guests: Heavy metal legend Ronnie James Dio appears as a guest vocalist on several songs — a rare and exciting cross-section of iconic voices.
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🎼 Cross-Genre Experiment: This concert wasn’t Deep Purple’s first orchestra collaboration — that honor goes to the original 1969 Concerto for Group and Orchestra with the Royal Philharmonic — but it remains one of the most fully realized rock-meets-classical performances in their catalog.
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🏛️ Royal Albert Hall Magic: Recorded in the legendary Royal Albert Hall, the setting itself added grandeur and historical weight to the performance — a venue synonymous with classical music as much as rock.
🧠 Did You Know?
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The Concerto for Group and Orchestra was originally premiered by Deep Purple with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1969, making Deep Purple one of the first hard rock bands to attempt a full orchestral concerto with a rock group — decades before similar collaborations became more common.
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The recreation effort for the concerto score — undertaken because the original was lost — took meticulous listening and transcription, effectively de-extincting a pivotal piece of rock/classical fusion history.
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Some fans and critics consider this live orchestral album a polarizing entry in Deep Purple’s discography — praised for its ambition, and critiqued by others for its departure from a pure rock aesthetic.
