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Classical musician reacts - JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH - Rick Wakeman - FIRST TIME LISTENING

OK CHRISTINA LISTENS

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Music reaction & analysis by a Classical musician: (part 1 of) JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH by RICK WAKEMAN feat. London Symphony Orchestra
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♥ What fun to learn about Wakeman, from Yes, and hear his adventures with a symphony orchestra! This was a pleasure to listen to and I hope to listen to more of this work in the future!!
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🎻 🎹 Christina is a professional musician with multiple college performance degrees, decades of performing with professional symphonies, string quartets, and teaching both privately and as a university professor. With extensive training in voice and music composition she also performs with choral ensembles and has award winning compositions premiered across the globe.
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Please watch the original full video without my reaction:
Rick Wakeman - Journey to The Centre of Th...
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20 Comments

@TCConlee 6 months ago Pinned

Thank you, Christina...you provided insight into a piece I've known for years, but really didn't appreciate its real worth until now. Half way through, I thought of the most amazing thing--- it was recorded live!

@konkabuilt 6 months ago

Now THAT is a hidden gem.

Rare to find someone to react to this magnificent epic

@RAH1379 6 months ago

Another album from this time was the six wives of Henry the eighth, you should hear

@iandent4501 6 months ago

Rick is a professor of music at the Royal College of Music. At the end of this recording he was given a standing ovation by the LSO and the LSO Choir. The record company wouldn't fund the recording so the only way he could afford to do it was to do it live and record it. Couldn't even afford a big enough rehearsal room to get his band, the choir and the orchestra in the same room. He rehearsed them all separately and the only time they played together was on the night. He hocked his whole life to pay for it, including his house. The stress caused him to have a heart attack in his twenties. Luckily, the record company was wrong.

@stephenmurphy7714 6 months ago

You can’t let this hang here.
The story progresses on side 2 . The piece livens up with The Battle, and eventually you hear Hall of the Mountain King, Edvard Grieg.
This album is very atmospheric. Rick had grand ideas, and we music fans all enjoy his wonderful work.
Classically trained Rick produced other albums which are well worth a listen.

@777mantikor 6 months ago (edited)

Wow! I NEVER expected to see a reaction to this. I was in my early teens when I first got this in 1975, due to my love of Rick Wakeman's work with Yes. I am so grateful for your reaction and that it is you doing it. I appreciate your knowledge and experience.

@codemonkey2k5 6 months ago (edited)

You would really love "The six Wives of Henry the eight". With all of the keyboards he usually plays, he also plays a massive Wurlitzer. The sound scape is astounding.

@user-wy1ev4yq5d 6 months ago (edited)

I've never seen anyone on YouTube critique this recording. God damn, Wakeman fans will build a monument to you!! The concert was his adaption of the novel, written by Jules Verne. When "I Was Young," an Animals song, I never read the novel, but remember very well the movie that was released in 1959, and watched it as a young man. That cinema received 3 Academy Award nominations. A suggestion: If you want to achieve YouTube immortality, please give Rick's "Six Wives of Henry the 8th" a bit of your time. It's one of my favorite forever albums. There's a huge amount of information on Wik about Journey To The Center. Thank you for doing the review.

@TheCkent100 6 months ago

Liner notes for this album:
Rick Wakeman - 3 Mellotrons, 2 Minimoog Synthesizers, 2 grand pianos, Hammond organ, Fender electric piano, RMI electric piano, Hohner Pianet, Honky-tonk piano
Gary Pickford-Hopkins - vocals
Ashley Holt - vocals
Mike Egan - electric guitar
Roger Newell - bass guitar
Barney James - drums
London Symphony Orchestra
English Chamber Choir

Additional personnel:
David Measham - conductor
David Hemmings - narrator

There was no movie that this performance was tied to. It was strictly done as a musical interpretation of the book with passage readings.

And Copeland composed "Fanfare for he Common Man" in 1942. Emerson Lake and Palmer did their interpretation of it in 1977.

@vizzini589 10 days ago

Listened to this endlessly as a teenager. Shocked you've covered this. Well done.

@WayneKitching 6 months ago

You must check out Rick Wakeman's channel where he analyses classical music. Also, Rick Beato had a great interview/conversation with him, interspersed with Wakeman playing some of his his iconic keyboard parts on piano and Hammond organ.

@NewBritainStation 6 months ago

Rick put a lot of time and money into making this happen, and ended up having a heart attack at age 25 during the following tour.

It was risky proposition to produce. Because of the costs associated with recording an orchestra and choir in a studio, they opted to record it live. But recording both shows would have doubled the cost of that, so only one show was recorded.

The band consisted of people he would jam with at a local pub. Vocalist Ashley Holt and drummer Barney James from a band called Warhorse, and second vocalist Gary Pickford-Hopkins from the band Wild Turkey (a Jethro Tull offshoot), and bassist Roger Newell from Valiant Trooper. He also brought in session guitarist Mike Egan who had played on Rick’s prior album.

They had six rehearsals with the orchestra, and those and the live performances occurred during a break in touring with Yes (for Tales from Topographic Oceans).

There was no movie, Rick took inspiration for the concept of setting a story to music from Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf.

@OverlandEasy 6 months ago (edited)

My first concert. Played at the Hollywood bowl. It was magnificent. After the ENCORE, nobody would leave even after they turned on the lights. So Rick came out and told us that they had played everything that they knew but for a second ENCORE they would replay side 2 of the album!

@henrymach 6 months ago (edited)

I think you're now ready for Renaissance's Scheherazade. It's actually weird that you didn't listen to anything from them yet. Scheherazade would be their magnum opus

@hape3778 6 months ago

"Journey", Rick's second solo album, a bold (some even called it "pompous") live composition, a mixture of classical & prog rock, was indeed my first introduction with him in '76. For me it was kind of love at first hearing - and that love has never ended.

The next two solo albums from him also are tremendously meaningful and important to me, namely "The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur And The Knights Of The Round Table" (1975, musically in vein of "Journey's" classical approach) and "No Earthly Connection" (1976, more experimental, e.g. quite a lot of brass). Wonderful albums, very much worth of checking out.

@Nuthin2CinHere 6 months ago

Ahhh, you've chosen a Wonderful album!

@cpaulson7695 6 months ago

Rick Wakeman, Mike Oldfield and Jeff Wayne were the musical focus of my teenage years.

@jumpjet777 6 months ago

My favourite from Rick - The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. 👍🎶

@roningber5016 6 months ago

I couldn't believe it when this popped up! Thank you so much, Christina! After 50+ years I still listen to this personal favorite on a regular basis. I have to admit not too many of my friends in my teens got it. But I couldn't get enough of it. And some things never change.