The recent BBC Proms concert Prog Rock: A Fanfare for the Common Man, broadcast from the Royal Albert Hall, was something I had been looking forward to immensely. It was a wonderful idea and I sincerely hope it returns, although for me the results were mixed.
There were moments that worked beautifully. Supertramp’s “Crime of the Century” was fantastic, as was the interpretation of Pink Floyd’s “The Great Gig in the Sky”. I also enjoyed the selections from Soft Machine and Gentle Giant. Elsewhere, however, some of the vocals and arrangements did not connect with me quite as strongly.
That set me thinking about the occasions when a rock band and an orchestra really do become one. The best collaborations are not simply familiar songs with a few strings added in the background. The orchestra must have its own presence, weight and power. At full force, it can be every bit as heavy as the band.
So, here are the ten orchestral rock concerts and live releases I return to most often. This is not intended as a list of the most historically important examples; these are simply my personal favourites—the performances that continue to excite and move me.
10. Deep Purple – Concerto for Group and Orchestra
I am choosing the expanded 2002 remastered edition rather than the original release. The 1969 recording always sounded rather muddy to me, but this edition opened everything up and brought the concert to life. It felt closer to the music Jon Lord must have heard in his imagination when he composed it.
Deep Purple were among the first major rock bands to attempt something of this scale. With the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Arnold, the Concerto was a genuine meeting of two musical worlds rather than a rock show decorated with orchestration.
It remains one of Jon Lord’s finest achievements and a work that will live on forever.
9. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant – No Quarter: Unledded
This was a fascinating moment. Page and Plant were working together again at a time when the mythology surrounding Led Zeppelin remained enormous, but this was not simply an attempt to recreate the past.
The performance that earns its place here is “Kashmir”. Jimmy Page’s monumental riff, Robert Plant’s voice and the Egyptian and orchestral musicians combine to magnify everything mysterious and Eastern-flavoured within the song. The sweeping strings and that extraordinary violin-led passage towards the end make the performance feel dramatic, emotional and completely distinctive.
I never tire of hearing it. In fact, revisiting No Quarter for this list made me want to put it straight back into the CD player.
8. Metallica – S&M
Metallica later returned to the concept with S&M2, but the original 1999 collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony remains the definitive one for me.
The set list is remarkable: “The Call of Ktulu”, “Master of Puppets”, “The Thing That Should Not Be”, “Fuel”, “Nothing Else Matters”, “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, “Wherever I May Roam”, “One”, “Enter Sandman” and “Battery”, among many others.
What makes it work is that the orchestra is not intimidated by Metallica. The strings surge alongside the riffs and the full ensemble becomes another source of heaviness. Neither side feels diminished; band and orchestra push one another to even greater intensity.
7. Camel – A Live Record: The Snow Goose
Camel’s performance of The Snow Goose with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in 1975 is a very different kind of experience, but every bit as powerful.
This music has a magical, timeless quality. There is innocence within it and something almost childlike in some of the melodies, yet it never becomes slight. I can return to The Snow Goose endlessly and it always makes me feel happy.
Imagine how it must have felt for Camel, still relatively early in their career, to perform the complete work with an orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall. Band and orchestra share the emotional weight of the music, creating something graceful, cinematic and deeply moving.
6. Dream Theater – Score
Recorded at Radio City Music Hall in 2006 to celebrate Dream Theater’s 20th anniversary, Score reaches another level when the Octavarium Orchestra joins the band for the second half of the concert.
There are many highlights, including “Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence”, “Vacant”, “The Answer Lies Within” and “Sacrificed Sons”, but two performances stand above everything else for me: “Octavarium” and “Metropolis”.
“Octavarium” is one of my favourite Dream Theater compositions. The way it grows from Jordan Rudess’s atmospheric opening into that immense conclusion is extraordinary. You can hear echoes of Genesis and Yes along the journey, but by the end the combination of band and orchestra has created an emotional force all of its own.
Once you have heard “Octavarium” performed this way, it is difficult to imagine it without an orchestra.
5. KISS – KISS Symphony: Alive IV
This may surprise a few people, but this is my list and therefore my rules!
Recorded in Australia with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, KISS Symphony is not only a wonderful-sounding concert; it is also one of the most entertaining concert films in my collection. Every member of the orchestra wears KISS make-up, and wherever the camera turns, everybody appears to be having the time of their lives.
That sense of celebration matters. The orchestra is fully inside the world of KISS, not standing at a polite distance from it. Songs such as “Detroit Rock City”, “Shout It Out Loud”, “Beth”, “Forever” and “Do You Love Me” are lifted onto an even larger stage.
If you have never understood the attraction of KISS, watch this concert. Their songs, the spectacle and the sheer fun of the occasion may well change your mind.
4. Within Temptation – Black Symphony
Recorded with the Metropole Orchestra at Rotterdam’s Ahoy Arena in 2008, Black Symphony remains a high-water mark for Within Temptation.
Songs including “Forgiven”, “Memories”, “The Cross”, “The Promise”, “Angels”, “Mother Earth”, “Ice Queen” and “All I Need” sound completely at home on this scale. The mix is exceptional: the guitars retain their power, the orchestra is an essential part of the music and nothing overwhelms anything else.
This is where a symphonic collaboration succeeds completely. After watching it, you almost cannot imagine Within Temptation returning to the stage without an orchestra. The music feels so spectacular to the ears—and the eyes—that the expanded version becomes definitive.
3. Deep Purple – With Orchestra: Live at Montreux 2011
Yes, there are two Deep Purple releases in my top ten.
This 2011 Montreux performance finds the band working with the Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt, conducted by Stephen Bentley-Klein. The orchestra is right at the front of the experience, but Deep Purple remain just as forceful.
“Hard Lovin’ Man” works brilliantly in this setting, as do “Rapture of the Deep”, “When a Blind Man Cries”, “Perfect Strangers” and “Smoke on the Water”. One of my favourite moments arrives during “Lazy”, when the violin and Don Airey’s keyboards engage in a thrilling musical duel.
The arrangements bring new colours to familiar songs without reducing their essential power. It is another concert that leaves me wishing Deep Purple could always tour with an orchestra.
2. Pete Townshend – Classic Quadrophenia
Quadrophenia is one of my ten favourite albums of all time, so this orchestral interpretation had a great deal to live up to. It succeeds because it reveals just how strong Pete Townshend’s melodies and compositions really are.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and London Oriana Choir give the work enormous sweep, with Alfie Boe taking the principal vocal role and appearances from Townshend, Billy Idol and Phil Daniels. Boe does not try to imitate Roger Daltrey; he brings something different, more operatic and theatrical, and it works.
“5:15” already possessed that wonderful brass-driven riff, while “The Rock” and the title instrumental seem made for a full orchestra. “Love Reign O’er Me” becomes especially powerful, as though we are finally hearing the scale Townshend may always have imagined.
This is not merely an orchestral novelty. It confirms Quadrophenia as a genuine rock opera with melodies strong enough to thrive in an entirely new musical setting.
1. Epica – Live at the Symphonic Synergy
My number one is the spectacular Live at the Symphonic Synergy Blu-ray included with editions of Epica’s Aspiral.
It is one of the most astonishing concert films I have watched. Epica’s music already has a symphonic scale, but with the full orchestra, choirs and production surrounding the band, the entire Epica universe seems to expand before your eyes.
Most importantly, everyone appears to be enjoying the occasion. The performance has grandeur and precision, but also joy and energy. The orchestra does not soften the metal; it makes it larger, heavier and more emotionally overwhelming.
If you are not already an Epica fan, this concert might convert you. If you remain unconvinced that an orchestra can stand alongside a rock or metal band as an equal force, this should settle the argument.
One Late Arrival: Devin Townsend – The Moth
After I had prepared this list, Devin Townsend’s deluxe edition of The Moth arrived, including The Moth – The War live concert film with orchestra and choir.
It confused my countdown because, had I seen it earlier, it would almost certainly have entered at number two. It deserves a separate review, but I could not finish this feature without mentioning it. It is ambitious, theatrical and overwhelming—the work of an artist using the orchestra as part of the music’s very foundations rather than as an added attraction.
When the Orchestra Becomes Heavy Metal
The best concerts on this list demonstrate that an orchestra can be as powerful as any amplified band. When seventy or more musicians move together at full force, the result can be genuinely heavy. Classical music has always contained darkness, tension, drama and sheer physical impact; combine that with Metallica, Epica, Deep Purple or Within Temptation and the scale becomes enormous.
That is what I occasionally missed during Prog Rock at the Proms. The programme contained some excellent performances and I applaud the BBC for staging it, but I would love a future edition to employ more rock-orientated vocalists and allow the orchestra—especially the strings—to unleash its full power.
I hope they continue with the idea because the possibilities are limitless.
Those are my ten—well, ten-point-something—favourite live orchestral rock releases. What have I missed? Which concert or album would be at number one on your list? Please let me know in the comments so we can continue the conversation.
Music is the healer and the doctor. Keep spinning those discs.
Phil Aston | Now Spinning Magazine
