Classical arrangement of Beatles album with little help from my friend

A FORMER Henley Symphony Orchestra oboeist who set up her own orchestra to perform a classical arrangement of music by Queen has done the same with the Beatles’ 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Jasmine Huxtable-Wright was so taken by Dee Palmer’s symphonic scores of Queen that she contacted the musician and composer to ask permission to play it.

Dee, 87, a former keyboard player with Jethro Tull, was delighted to send her the pieces.

Thames Valley Festival Orchestra performed the Queen scores at a concert at Dorchester Abbey in April.

Jasmine says: “When I started talking to Dee in the beginning of 2023, she also mentioned that she had done the Beatles arrangement, so I thought, ‘Ooh, okay, this is worth having a listen to’ and she very kindly sent me a copy of the CD.

“It didn’t get widely sold because it was actually done and recorded originally back in the Nineties by the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra.Dee wrote the arrangements for the Royal Academy when they made her a fellow. So this was a sort of thank-you and it was a case of, well, you’re giving me this wonderful accolade of a fellowship, so what can I do in return? So the output of that was these wonderful arrangements, which then got recorded by the orchestra.

“It’s a very good recording, and I thought, ‘Well okay, let’s pursue this one now’ to see first of all if I could get hold of the parts from Dee, which fortunately I could, and it’s for identical arrangement. There’s only bass guitar, not electric guitar, in this one so our electric guitarist gets a rest in the first half.

“It’s absolutely amazing, because it’s such a beautiful recreation of Sgt. Pepper and it is 57 years since the album came out now. “It’s quite remarkable actually when you realise just again, like the Queen stuff, how timeless this music is. Everybody knows When I’m 64, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and Lovely Rita, all those wonderful ones, it’s like ‘Oh my goodness’ and they are just beautifully orchestrally arranged.

“I took all the parts along when we were actually rehearsing for the Dorchester Abbey Queen concert, and for our rehearsal the week before that, I added on half an hour and I said to everybody, ‘Well , okay, I’m going to bring along all the Beatles music, so we can read through it and just see if this is going to be something for another concert’, just to make sure that it would work and it was amazing.

“We got through the whole lot and everyone thought, ‘Oh, this is great’. “The Beatles and Queen music go really well together. The first half will be all of the orchestral Beatles tracks on the original Sgt. Pepper album, so it makes a nice 45-minute first half, then we’ll have the interval and then we’ve got the best — I won’t say the best because they’re all brilliant on the Queen album – it was a really hard choice.

“So it’s a nice combination of two iconic bands, all beautifully done in the Dee Palmer orchestral style.” The set will include With A Little Help From My Friends, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, When I’m 64, Lovely Rita, Bicycle Race, Innuendo and We Are The Champions.

Thames Valley Festival Orchestra plays symphonic tributes to the Beatles and Queen, arranged by Dee Palmer, at the Great Hall, University of Reading, on Saturday, September 14 at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £25 adults, £15 children (not suitable for small children), available now from tvforeading.eventbrite.co.uk