Orchestral adaptations of The Beatles are a well-established but not necessarily revered part of the cover music world. They can be a hastily rehearsed group of classical musicians or even an orchestra collaborating (vying?) with an established 4 or 5-piece R&B tribute act for a live sing-along. Fun but not necessarily enlightening. Even more ambitious attempts often cannot see a way to dispense with vocals and a pop rhythm section. Some use instrumental lines to match the vocals from the records, in an appropriate register. You can hear the oboe doing Paul’s voice work in many of them.
These “classical” versions tend to come from the band’s magisterial phase, when the band and George Martin were already exploring large, innovative soundscapes. That means that more intimate songs, and they are usually just cover versions of individual pieces, get left behind. It’s not clear that they are adding anything to the greatest legacy in pop music. We had a lot of fun compiling our 75 Best Beatles Covers feature last year. As our editor pointed out, we could have put in the best 1000 and not had any clunkers. And none of those 1000 would have been orchestral covers.
So the ambition of the Antwerp Philharmonic Orchestra to do something novel and exciting in a moribund space is to be admired. That they delivered on that ambition is a source of great joy. What they created in ‘Another Seven Symphonies’ is nothing short of a Beatles Musical Universe, to rival some cinematic universes. These are not cover versions of individual songs, they are symphonies based on themes. Some of these themes are obvious but others are idiosyncratic, and even more amazing for being so for being successful. The symphonies have their own musical logic and imperatives. They are spaces in which the music, and the protagonists of the songs, can interact and interweave. Illuminate the stories that we have, but also create new ones. Significantly augment the legacy of the band. The recorded version, arranged by Roeland Jacobs and supported in the conception and delivery by orchestra conductor Alexandra Arrieche along with Rob Van Weelde, is a triumph. Recorded in Belgium, it was nevertheless mastered at Abbey Road Studios, which must have been a buzz.
Where should the world premiere of the live version have been held? If you have the ambition and belief, why not Liverpool? There is nowhere better in the city to host the concert than the Tung Auditorium, a state-of-the-art venue that serves as an alternative home for the venerable Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
Was it possible that there were going to be skeptics or naysayers in the audience? Probably not, there are lots of alternatives places to be in Liverpool on a Saturday night. The orchestra nevertheless did bring along a large group of supporters from home, who mingled with the locals. The initial signs on arrival were good. Being the home of a successful major orchestra means that you have the full array of instruments available to you, even if you have flown over from Belgium that morning. With a grand piano, harpsichord, celeste, harp, and the panoply of percussion instruments to deploy in addition to all of the portable instruments. But there was no guitar, electric bass or conventional drum kit. As with the album, there was no pop rhythm section.
From the moment that some chords from “Dear Prudence” emerged from the opening piece, Symphony of the Walrus, it was clear that something special might be unfolding, and that sense kept building. All of the seven symphonies consisted of musical themes from multiple songs, so there was a grand total of 39 songs. But they had to fit musically. The opening symphony mainly consisted of songs from John. The next, Abbey Symphony, was necessarily more Paul-focused. But it made musical sense to open on “Because” because John’s song fitted the musical logic best. It also gave an opportunity to explain and understand where “Because” came from. The legend goes that the genesis of the track came from Yoko Ono listening to John noodling on Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and suggesting that the musical progression could be reversed and turned into a song. The pianist demonstrated how. Given that the Tung Auditorium is located within the Yoko Ono Lennon Centre, there was much to be considered at that moment. For Symphony for George the harp and array of keyboards was expertly deployed in an incandescently bright “Here Comes the Sun” inspired start, which was followed by some of the quiet Beatle’s other classics. In a venue located a mere brisk walk from George’s childhood home. The first set concluded with the bravura Symphony of Jazz, which explored Paul’s tracks inspired by the Music Hall and Trad jazz songs his dad familiarised him with.
To kick off the second half, it was explained that the All Our Loving piece would encompass some love songs, with a “nod to Mahler”, without further explanation. It soon became clear what the meaning was. Klangfarbenmelodie. The composers and arrangers had solved the problem of how to incorporate a song that works best with simplicity of presentation, in an orchestra setting. The refrain from “Yesterday” was passed from solo French horn to trumpet, around the rest of the brass section, before being picked up by various leaders in the woodwind section. All the while different melodies played underneath. The Symphony On the Hill closed out with an engaging fugue. Where the Indian influenced originals had moments where a low note was played as a drone with a tune above the arrangement, here we had a higher drone note from an oboe for the melody to be played underneath. The last part of the main set Rigby’s Waltz allowed Eleanor to interact with the woman who is leaving home. The last fragment heard before the cheers and (first) standing ovation was “Good Night.”
Of course, it was not quite the end, as there was an opportunity to hear something in public for the very first time. Songs from the first post-Beatles decade. A time when relations between the members were, in some cases, at a low point. However, it became clear that their music could still interact positively in the right hands, and also that the late released song “Now and Then” deserves its place in the canon. More standing ovations followed.
‘Another Seven Symphonies’, the recorded version, is available on streaming platforms and is available in physical form here. The evening was recorded by a professional videography team for release later in 2025!
