While I have to be honest and say that I don’t listen to nearly as much classical music as I should (for some reason I always have music to review), there is something about an orchestra that is a powerful art form. I have always been intrigued when an arranger attempts to move rock music into the classical arena and there have been very few that have ever managed to do that with any degree of success. The one who has always stood head and shoulders above the rest has been David Palmer, who for years provided the string arrangements for Jethro Tull and of course was a full member himself in the late Seventies. His work on Tull, Genesis and Floyd is incredible and if you have never heard ‘A Classic Case’ then you owe it to yourself to invest in it immediately as his version of “Fly By Night’ takes the original into completely new territory and easily surpasses it.
So, why is it so hard to take modern rock music and transform it into something fit for an orchestra? The answer probably has many facets, but some of these would have to be that the person to attempt to do this must have a great love and understanding for both styles and also the original music itself must be layered enough with drama and passion that makes it suitable for such a transformation. To be honest, while I love Dream Theater (I have approx 40 of their albums, ‘The Number of the Beast’ and ‘Master of Puppets’ are awesome!), I hadn’t realised what just what could be done with their music in this context. Step forward Michał Mierzejewski, who started playing violin at the age of eight and became a student at the Music Academy in Gdansk, before founding the symphony orchestra Sinfonietta Consonus in 2008. He started composing himself after his mother went to hospital and later his best friend Łukasz Miszewski died. The pain and suffering were written into the score of ten part tribute entitled “Requiem for the Friend” – composed for an orchestra and a choir.
In 2010 Michał produced a short audio of what he wanted to do, using an ‘artificial’ orchestra and it was warmly received on DT forums and Mike Portnoy said “This looks like it’s gonna be an EPIC symphonic tribute to DT”. From this point onwards Michał knew that he was committed and started to work on the arrangements and what musicians he could use to bring his dream to fruition. Of course Sinfonietta Consonus were a major part, and he brought in Bartosz Kropidłowski on classical guitar with Tina Guo (cello), Marc Papeghin (french horns) and Daniel Fries (acoustic guitars) while Ariel Ludwiczak assisted him with the conducting. The result is something that is wonderful, inspiring, incredible, truly classical and a definite tribute to the band that inspired him.
The only thing that I can say about this is that it is an incredible achievement, and if you ever thought that Dream Theater were majestic (anyone get the pun?) and sublime then take it from me you haven’t heard anything yet. Indispensible.
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