Tommy - As Performed by the London Symphony Orchestra & Chamber Choir

AMG Review of Tommy - As Performed by the London Symphony Orchestra & Chamber Choir

Bruce Eder
All Music Guide

It seemed like a great idea at the time -- a time that included the Who performing Tommy at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and the work also being staged as a legitimate ballet. Three-and-a-half years after the Who's original album first appeared, and two decades before it came to Broadway, this all-star production of Tommy was released by Ode Records. And it demanded attention in 1972, based on its talent lineup alone: Roger Daltrey (in the title role), Rod Stewart, Merry Clayton, Richie Havens, John Entwistle, Steve Winwood, Richard Harris, Ringo Starr, Maggie Bell, and Pete Townshend, joined by Sandy Denny and Graham Bell in small roles, and all of them accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra & Chamber Choir. Though few people buying it at the time -- and it sold over a million copies -- recognized it as such, it was the equivalent of legitimate opera recordings such as Herbert Von Katajan's gala cast recording of Die Fledermaus on Decca/London Records. Rock was growing up, and being taken more seriously, and that resonated with a lot of listeners and musicians in 1972. Time has removed some of the original luster from the production, which has become a love-it or hate-it affair in the decades since. Conceived by producer Lou Reizner, this recording -- usually referred to informally as the "all-star Tommy" -- initially got the endorsement of Pete Townshend, who apparently saw it at first as a realization of some of what he'd visualized when he first wrote the piece. The Who's original version was recorded too hastily to treat the music as he would've liked, with more than three instruments (five if you count one organ part and a horn part) -- this production seemed to take the piece to a new level.

Many others felt that Reizner's production was an overblown, leaden interpretation, weighed down by the sheer mass of the 100-piece ensemble and Wil Malone's vast orchestrations, and a recording that was drenched in so much reverb, that parts of it sounded like they were recorded inside an immense cavern. Originally released in a box with a full libretto, the double-LP version was one of the more elaborately conceived and packaged rock releases of its era -- and it was a ready-made Christmas gift for 1972 (and doubly so, given the production's emphasis on "Christmas Day" in the second half and the huge chorale setting for the finale, "See Me, Feel Me"), and became a million-seller. On the down side, the recording's elephantine dimensions carried with it a certain coldness, and this was coupled with some problems with the dynamic range (and that excessive reverb) on the original LP. The virtues included all of Daltrey's work -- this record, along with the previous year's Who's Next, revealed what a superb singer he had become; and Clayton ("The Acid Queen"), Havens ("Eyesight to the Blind"), Stewart ("Pinball Wizard"), and Harris ("Go to the Mirror") never had better moments working with an orchestra. And some of Malone''s arrangements do work extremely well -- the re-writing of the guitar-and-bass parts on the "Underture" for strings is very well done, and when conductor David Measham gets into the spirit of the original and successfully conveys this to the players, it works beautifully, as on "Welcome," "Go to the Mirror," and "See Me, Feel Me"; and when Malone goes for rich timbres and textures in his orchestrations, rather than just big sound, as on the "Overture," "Amazing Journey," and "Sparks," as well as all of those numbers already mentioned, the effort is worthwhile. As to the various reissues, the 1989 Rhino CD left all of the dynamic problems that afflicted the original LP intact and, indeed, enhanced some of them. In 2009, Repertoire Records re-released the album in a deluxe CD edition, re-creating the original LP packaging with new notes by Chris Welch. The new remastering solved some of the original volume problems, but also revealed just how uncomfortably tight the edits on the original must have been on some of the orchestral and choral parts; and apparently, there was no way to remove the reverb, which is still a problem, though reduced somewhat in impact on this edition. There are enough good moments -- and a few great ones for Daltrey -- on the part of enough good singers to make this worth owning for serious fans of any of the talent. But overall, this is still more of a curio than an essential acquisition for most listeners. In place of Reizner and Malone -- whose excesses marred or compromised too many of the successful moments here -- the music needed, say, George Martin, who knew a thing or two about orchestrating rock (and is precisely who Townshend and company turned to for the Broadway adaptation two decades later).