Yngwie Discusses his Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in Eb minor, Op. 1
"Ever since I was born I have always been surrounded by music. My older brother and sister were both multi-instrumentalists playing piano, flute, violin, and drums. I received my first guitar on my fifth birthday but never took any formal guitar training. However, I had piano, cornet, flute, and drum lessons for a couple of years. In 1970 when I was seven, I saw Jimi Hendrix on Swedish television and began my lifelong love affair with the guitar. I picked up my guitar that very moment and played day in and day out like a boy possessed. On my eighth birthday I got my very first LP. It was Deep Purple's Fireball. I loved the energy and power of that band. I joined a band when I was nine, which played mostly Purple and Hendrix cover songs, but slowly I started to write some of my own music. It actually got to a point when I knew all the Blackmore and Hendrix solos/songs that I started to wonder, is this it, what's next?
"During this time, my sister, Lollo, brought home a record by the band Genesis called Trespass. The arrangements, chordal structures, and counterpoint melodies intrigued me very much. They broke all the boundaries of the blues-based pentatonic realm. At first I wondered where all this came from but after analyzing my mother's classical (mostly Baroque) record collection, I of course realized where it stemmed from. From that point on, my love for classical Baroque music was irreversible.
"At the age of twelve, I carried on forming various bands where we performed strictly my compositions. The pieces were strongly Baroque-influenced heavy rock pieces. I still enjoyed the spirit and energy of "rock" music but felt frustrated with the run-of-the-mill melodic content (especially when it never seemed to go beyond the pentatonic) of the average rock band. Hence, I began losing interest in listening to rock.
"At thirteen, I saw the violinist, Gideon Kremer, on (once again) Swedish television and was truly amazed at what I heard. He played Nicolo Paganini's 24 Caprices, which I immediately bought at the record store. This was a very important revelation to me because that's how my approach to guitar really changed forever. The long sustaining notes with a dramatic vibrato, the cascading descending and ascending lines and nearly impossible arpeggios became by far the greatest influence on my solo playing.
"However, instead of studying the pieces per se, I always improvised in a somewhat similar vein. Obviously this was an arduous task and many years passed before I came close to reaching my goal. As I carried on my "neo-classical rock" journey, I started to dream that maybe one day I could compose and perform a piece in a somewhat orthodox classical form. I wanted to compose a piece for orchestra, choir (my mother sang in a Baroque choir), and guitar with myself as the soloist. No "rock" drums. No "rock" vocals.
"After moving to the U.S. at age nineteen in 1983, my recording career took off like I'd never dreamed. This was very good I felt, simply because I insisted and got total musical freedom. That resulted in a number of heavily Baroque-influenced hard rock albums that did rather well. Although I was quite happy with the music I was making, there was always in the back of my head a vision of realizing that "classical" piece being composed by me and performed by a full orchestra and choir.
"The opportunity did not come until 1996 for me to take some serious time out to compose such a piece. I know many classical numbers note for note, but I did not learn them from a piece of paper. I picked them up from listening carefully. I always play with my ears! Therefore, the way the Concerto Suite was assembled is quite unorthodox. Basically, I improvised until I felt a good theme or chord progression was developed. Luckily, I own a multitrack studio, which made it easy to record the demos. I'm even more fortunate to have in my band a great keyboard player, Mats Olausson, who spent countless hours in my studio working with me. I composed the piece and then had Mats translate the parts onto the keyboard. For example, I'd say, "Play this part with a cello sound." I would hum it or play it on guitar. Then we'd do the harpsichord, contrabass, violins, flute, trombone, oboe, timpani, choir, and so forth. This went on for about three months or so as I kept coming up with new ideas. Segments were revised or turned around; put together; keys were changed; main themes became secondary ones; new themes and melodies kept turning up; counterpoints were added and so on. Throughout all this madness, Mats stuck by me and for that I thank him deeply. When my composition was nearly complete, the next logical step was to score it out.
"While I was recording one of my albums, Inspiration, and Mats was out of the country, I needed some keyboard parts done. My manager, Jim Lewis, recommended David Rosenthal. I had heard of him before, so I thought it was a good idea. He came to my studio and played great. We got along so well that I asked him if he wanted to hear my ideas for an orchestral piece. After playing it for him, he declared he was the man to transcribe it. He scored it out and recorded a synthesized version for which I re-recorded all of my guitar parts, and it worked out great.
"Next step was to find a conductor and an orchestra. In the classical realm, it seems that most good conductors and orchestras are booked solid for years in advance. While on tour, I met Yoel Levi, the conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He listened to the demo of the piece and was really impressed. He knew about my playing from his son and was very enthusiastic about the project.
"In June 1997, I got on a plane and flew to the beautiful city of Prague to begin rehearsals and recording. Pony Canyon, my Japanese label, has a close relationship with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. After discussions with many other orchestras, we decided that the combination of the high quality players, concert hall, and recording facilities suited our needs the best.
The recording was a unique situation for myself, the orchestra, and engineers. It went great! After finishing the recording of the orchestra, we moved back to Miami to record the guitars and mix the album. The results exceeded my wildest expectations. My dream has come true."
Sincerely yours,
Yngwie Johann Malmsteen