NY Times previews this weekend’s Beatles concerts

The New York Times spoke with conductor Martin Herman, who will lead the NJSO in this weekend’s “Music of The Beatles: Classical Mystery Tour” concerts in Newark and New Brunswick:

[T]he New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, based in Newark, presents “Classical Mystery Tour,” a concert of more than two dozen Beatles songs performed exactly as they were recorded ($20 to $88). “Classical Mystery Tour” is a traveling concert that originated in California in 1997. Its conductor, Martin Herman, and four band members, each playing the character of a Beatle, perform songs based on the original George Martin arrangements, backed by a full orchestra.

“Not everyone in the orchestra is playing at once. It’s all about replicating the genius of George Martin. It’s chamber music, all very intimate,” said Mr. Herman, 56, of Los Angeles. “Yesterday” will feature an acoustic guitar accompanied by a string quartet, for example.

The New York Times’ Alan Kozin writes:

It was inevitable, time marching on as it does, and yet it also hard to believe: Half a century has passed since the Beatles touched down in New York for the first time, on Feb. 7, 1964, and seduced the country with three performances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and three concerts, one at the Washington Coliseum and two at Carnegie Hall. Everything about them — their pudding basin haircuts, their Cardin suits and pointed boots, their sharp, irreverent sense of humor — seemed outlandish, compared with American pop groups. And though their music was firmly rooted — as they were always quick to point out — in American rhythm and blues, soul and rock, they produced a sound that was fresh, energetic and unmistakably their own ...

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra will join forces with Classical Mystery Tour, a tribute band that specializes in playing Beatles songs (as well as post-Beatles solo works), for a symphonic commemoration, conducted by Martin Herman at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark (Saturday at 8 p.m.) and the State Theater in New Brunswick (next Sunday at 3 p.m.).