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   CLUB SANDWICH 58

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Club Sandwich 58

movement, Crises, which is graced by an especially beautiful piece, 'Save The Child', that is so stunning it will make grown adults weep.
            Variety is the keynote of the eight movements - at times the Oratorio is reminiscent of a film score, then perhaps something by Rossini then maybe Bruch (which is appropriate, for he conducted the RLPO in the late 19th century). At the same time, though, it's a highly original piece of work, not in any sense a derivative of something else.
            The premiere performance of Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio was recorded live - an album will follow this autumn -so this full trial run was a vital opportunity to ensure the correct positioning of mikes, the right sound balance and the perfect ambient feel. Producer John Fraser and engineer John Timperley took charge behind the sound desk. For Timperley, it was a second opportunity to work with Paul: 24 years ago, while based at Chappell studio in London, he engineered the Beatles' 'Your Mother Should Know'.
            This full rehearsal was also an important event for BBC producer Ann Paul, charged with the job of directing a 60-minute documentary about the making of the Oratorio. (Ann, too, has worked with Paul before, producing the moving 1988 TV documentary The Power Of Music, in which Paul was seen visiting the children at the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre in London - see CS50.) Her cameras have been following Paul around since the start of the year, filming Carl and him at work, Paul taking a memory lane tour of Liverpool locations, and - especially interesting this - Paul coaching the singers in private rehearsal.
            A few hours earlier, during the morning of the trial recording, Ann's film crew were again out and about in Liverpool, taking a bus ride to Penny Lane and shooting scenes inside the now closed and sadly neglected Liverpool Institute school, attended by Paul up to 1960. Her film, co-produced by Chips Chipperfield for MPL and EMI's video arm Picture Music International, will be broadcast by the BBC to coincide with the album release in a few month's time and will doubtless make for essential viewing.
            Everyone involved in the Oratorio knows that this has been a remarkable project. Ann Paul describes it as a radical new departure for Paul McCartney -"He's both frightened by it and excited by it at the same time," she says. And world-rated tenor singer Jerry Hadley, who knows a thing or two about the world of opera and classics (he was in a rock band in his youth, too), says that Paul's Oratorio includes some of the most beautiful music he has ever sung and that it will breathe life back into classical music.
            There will, naturally, be snooty sceptics who will blather on about the Oratorio being essentially Carl Davis's work, and who will say that, surely, all Paul could have done was whistle or hum a melody for Carl to notate and orchestrate. Nothing could be further from the truth. Though Carl Davis has been a vital part of the project from the start, fully meriting his co- composer status, Paul has enjoyed very much a "hands-on" grip of the Oratorio from concept to completion, contributing ideas and opinions every single moment along the way.
            This was clear to see at the Cathedral in March, Paul suggesting late refinements to a violin part here or cello part there, Carl re-instructing the musicians and then nodding to Paul as the change dropped neatly into place, improving still further what sounded pretty perfect to begin with.
            Come the album, the video and come the television documentary, such attention to detail and musical beauty will be evident to the world.

Club Sandwich 58

Inset: A familiar if cherubic face, fourth left, visiting the Anglican Cathedral, 1953. Time moves on: Paul with the Cathedral Choristers, 1991