George Martin's work with the Beatles defined the sixties and changed music forever.
As Paul McCartney said, ‘if anyone was the fifth Beatle it was him’.
During the 1950's, Martin, a great appreciator of quirkiness, established the Parlophone label with a sequence of ingenious comedy records by The Goons, Peter Ustinov and Flanders and Swann; a precocious formula which caught the mood of the time and yielded hits for Bernard Cribbins and Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren. Then, in 1961, while George was in Cambridge recording Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller in the groundbreaking satirical revue, Beyond the Fringe, came news of of the label's first Number One hit, 'You're Driving Me Crazy' by the whimsical 1920's-style dance band, The Temperance Seven.
Martin described his productions as "Sound Pictures". He would coax a performance from the artist, the result sometimes embellished by sound effects and other imaginative acoustic devices.
The techniques George mastered while creating comedy records had everything to do with the production triumphs that would follow with The Beatles. When the band retired from touring and determined to concentrate on making albums with a pioneering approach to the whole new art of pop, Martin was well equipped to meet the group's challenging sonic demands and to propose a good many initiatives of his own; whether in the string quartet setting for ‘Yesterday', or when taking an orchestra into uncharted musical waters for 'A Day In the Life'.
George Martin had a very particular affection for the Impressionist composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. He claimed the former's ‘Prélude à l'après-midi d’un faune' was the piece that decided him on a career in music and saw ‘Strawberry Fields Forever' as a Debusseyesque tone poem. For George, Ravel was “one of the greatest orchestrators of all time", with the “choreographic symphony”, ‘Daphnis and Chloe’ a particular favourite.
This 3CD presentation comprises all of George Martin's productions for the Temperance Seven, the sheer surrealist-comic electricity he captured of Beyond the Fringe, (including the original chart album) and a selection of works by Debussy and Ravel, including Igor Markevitch's account of Debussy's 'Faun' made at Abbey Road and 'Daybreak' from Pierre Monteux's ravishing 'Daphnis and Chloe' with the London Symphony Orchestra.
DISC ONE - THE TEMPERANCE SEVEN
1 Ukulele Lady (with Peter Sellers)
2 You're Driving Me Crazy
3 Charley, My Boy
4 Vo-Do-Do-De-O Blues
5 Pasadena
6 Sugar
7 Hard Hearted Hannah
8 Chilli Bom Bom
9 Dinah
10 Kaiser Drag
11 T.C.P. (That Certain Party)
12 My Blue Heaven
13 Oh, Baby
14 East St. Louis Toodle-oo
15 I Wonder What's Become Of Joe
16 Falling In Love Again
17 Autumn Leaves
18 Gaumont British News Theme
19 The Charleston
20 The Black Bottom
21 Everybody Loves My Baby
22 Sahara
23 Running Wild
24 The Mooche
25 The Shake
26 Bye, Bye, Baby
27 Dreamaway Romance (The Carnation Quartet)
DISC TWO - BEYOND THE FRINGE (Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller)
1 The Royal Box
2 The Heat-Death Of The Universe
3 Bollard
4 Deutscher Chansons
5 T.V.P.M.
6 Aftermyth Of War
7 Civil War
8 Real Class
9 Little Miss Britten
10 Black Equals White
11 Take A Pew
12 The End Of The World
13 The Sadder And The Wiser Beaver
14 Sitting On The Bench
15 And The Same to You
16 Portrait From Memory
17 So That's The Way You Like It
18 The End of the World
19 Strictly For The Birds (Dudley Moore Trio)
DISC THREE - GEORGE MARTIN: CLASSICAL INFLUENCES (Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel)
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
1 Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (Philharmonia Orchestra: Igor Markevitch)
2 Nuages (from Nocturnes) (Orchestre du Théâtre National de L'Opéra de Paris: Manuel Rosenthal)
3 Sarabande, from Pour Le Piano (Samson Francois: piano)
La Mer (The Sea)
4 De l'aube à midi sur la mer
5 Jeux de vagues"
6 Dialogue du vent et de la mer
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra / Roger Désormière
MAURICE RAVEL
7 La Vallée des cloches (Marcelle Meyer: piano)
8 Lever du jour "Daybreak", from Daphnis & Chloe (Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden & London Symphony Orchestra / Pierre Monteux) 9 La Valse (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Eduard van Beinum)
10 Bolero (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Eduard van Beinum)
