CLUB SANDWICH 58

NON NOBIS SOLUM SED TOTIMUNDO NATI

Not for ourselves alone but for the whole world, were we born

The evening of Friday 28 June saw the world premiere of Paul's much-anticipated Liverpool Oratorio. It's a landmark achievement, even for so glittering a career. In this feature, Mark Lewisohn charts the course of the project leading up to the big day.

            After three years of planning, preparation and writing, Paul's first full departure into the world of classical music has just been unveiled.
            In those three years, the project has travelled from a rough outline concept to an impressive eight-movement, 97-minute triumph that befits its two highly esteemed creators, Paul and his symphonic scribe and collaborator Carl Davis. Paul has been involved in classical pieces before - the 'Eleanor's Dream' sequence for Broad Street springs to mind, as does his soundtrack for The Family Way and, of course, the scores of scores he has overseen for his albums over the years - but he's done nothing on the scale of a full oratorio before. The first three movements are semi-autobiographical, thereafter the scope broadens.
            Though it all began in the relatively recent past, the precise genesis of Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio is a pretty complicated one - so much so that accounts differ over how the ball came to be set rolling. (It's easy to see how history can sometimes get things wrong.) It actually came about something like this -

• For some years, Linda and Paul have been friendly with Carla Lane, author of those acclaimed BBC sitcoms The Liver Birds (remember the theme music by the Scaffold?), Butterflies, Solo and, presently, the highly successful Bread. As a result of this friendship, the McCartneys guested in a 1988 edition of Bread, shot on location in Liverpool and in a London BBC studio (see CS50).
• During the shoot, Paul and Linda struck up a friendship with actress Jean Boht who, as Mrs Boswell, is the backbone character of the series. Boht is only Jean's maiden name though - she's married to the classical music composer and arranger Carl Davis and lives in London, not Liverpool.
• Carla Lane then wrote the text for an orchestral concert, The Pigeon's Progress, narrated by Jean Boht, conducted by Carl Davis and performed on Merseyside by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra on 7 July 1988. The McCartneys sent a telegram to all three on the day of the premiere: "Here's to you and all the pigeons of the world, Love Paul and Linda". This gave birth to the idea that Paul should be asked to write a piece of music to be performed in June 1991, celebrating the RLPO's 150th anniversary. Paul agreed, a formal commission from the RLPO was forthcoming and he and Carl got down to the first of several drafts.

            Of course, the lion's share of those same three years also happened to be occupied by a certain 102-concert, ten-months-on-the-road-plus-rehearsals World Tour, but one could never accuse Paul McCartney of shirking the odd year (or lifetime) of hard work. In between pre-tour rehearsals, the inter-continental jaunts, the production of Tripping The Live Fantastic and other tasks, Paul and Carl got together to plan and compose a veritable feast of beautiful music.
            Those three years of prep at Paul's studio and Carl's London home were distilled into three days of rehearsals in Liverpool just before this Easter, culminating in a trial recording of the full work during the evening of Wednesday 27 March at the place where the premiere was held - Liverpool's mightily impressive Anglican Cathedral - where, in 1953, one J P McCartney, aged 11, failed an audition for the choir. Ah, but life is full of strange twists and turns!
            For this trial recording, the full cast was assembled: four soloists, the 90 RLPO musicians, the 160-strong Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir and the 40 neatly-uniformed schoolboys who comprise The Choristers of Liverpool Cathedral. It was a first full get-together of the parties that reunited on June 28 to perform Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio to a 2300-strong audience.
            Before the Wednesday evening recording, Paul and Carl spent 2 1/2 days perfecting and rehearsing specific elements of the work. With the exception of tenorist Jerry Hadley, the other three main singers - Dame Kiri Te Kanawa (soprano), Sally Burgess (mezzo-soprano) and Willard White (baritone) - were not available for the rehearsals. Deputising for them were the no less impressive Anna Steiger (daughter of the great film actor, Rod), Louise Winter and Gerald Finley; Hadley also stood down some of the time, replaced by Gordon Christie. Dame Kiri did pop along to watch proceedings on the Monday, however, but was suffering from a bad throat so singing was strictly off-limits.
            With it being Holy Week, Liverpool Cathedral was an especially busy place during the afternoon rehearsals, since there was no question of denying access to tourists or those wishing to pray. Though the area north of the Nave Bridge was roped off, these visitors were accordingly treated to an exclusive preview of the Oratorio three months before the premiere proper. It was only for the Wednesday trial recording, which took place after choral evensong (following which the Cathedral closes), that privacy could be ensured.
            It wasn't total privacy, however. Friends (appropriately, Carla Lane, for one), relations and a BBC film unit formed a small but appreciative audience as Carl Davis picked up his baton and readied the musicians and singers for the recording. Linda sat in the third row, beaming support to her husband - who sat on a high stool a few feet away, adjacent to Carl - taking photographs and being visibly moved by the beauty of the music.
            Before the music began, though, Paul got up to speak, offering his sincere thanks to everyone for their hard work and what he called "the very exciting last few days" in which he had seen his "work springing off the page". The speech was a nice, unexpected gesture, clearly appreciated by everyone involved, and it concluded with Paul looking forward to seeing everyone again in June.
            The full eight movements then followed, music and words that filled the Cathedral with a rich sound and captivated everyone privileged to be there. Each of the movements has a theme, and it won't spoil things to reveal their titles - War, School, Crypt, Father, Wedding, Work, Crises and Peace. Each is special, different and entrancing in its own way but one feels compelled to single out the seventh