'She Loves You' from 'Classic Beatles' by Robin Hill & Peter Wiltschinsky

Early last year we released an album, 'Classic Beatles' which you can read about here, 'Classic Beatles - Robin Hill & Peter Wiltschinsky'.

Today we thought it would be nice to hear one track in its entirety and accompanied by some photographs of the duo taken over the years.

'She Loves You' is a favourite of most Beatles fans and therefore required a sensitive approach to maintain the essence of the piece.
In this arrangement, by Robin, he uses many techniques to grab the listeners attention, such as the canon, counterpoint and some breath taking triplets at about a minute in.

You can hear more examples from the album on iTunes, Amazon and in fact many digital outlets.

Also, for those who may want to try playing these pieces, or many others, there is a large catalogue of sheet music on our website, under Hillhouse Editions Sheet Music.

So, here is 'She Loves You'.

Classic Beatles - Robin Hill & Peter Wiltschinsky

The Hill/Wiltschinsky Guitar Duo have long been Beatles fans so it seemed natural that at some point they would record their own versions of these incredible songs on this Classic Beatles album.

Some of these pieces have been performed live, especially Eleanor Rigby which the duo frequently played as a much appreciated encore. When introducing it Robin often mentioned the following story:

A journalist once asked George Harrison what he thought of Andrés Segovia and his reply was, 'He's the Daddy of us all."

This got back to the Maestro, who said, "These pop stars might be nice boys but what they are doing is obscene and a disease...I do not like the way the girls go crazy.'

This always caused much mirth amongst the audience.

With these arrangements Hill/Wiltschinsky hope to redress the balance and show that the music of Lennon and McCartney is of such a high quality that it can stand many forms of interpretation.

The whole process was an intense one as they each took half of the 32 songs so that both did an equal amount of arranging. As in the relationship between Lennon and McCartney, the desire to create interesting and unique arrangements to these well known songs fuelled Robin and Peter to become more and more creative.

Sometimes the title alone suggested an arranging approach.
A good example of this is, 'I'll Be Back', which Robin punned as, 'I'll Be Bach', and arranged in a Baroque style.

Another, 'Hard Day's Night', which he thought of as, 'Hard Day's Knight', and arranged in an Elizabethan Lute style.

Who would have thought that, 'She Loves You', would work on two guitars successfully? This one was imagined as a real guitar duo and features many compositional devices such as canon, counterpoint etc.

The hope was always that people would pick up on the many more hidden references and inspiration throughout the album. Even the introductions to many of the pieces present a mystery as to which famous Beatles track will be heard.

You can find, Classic Beatles - Robin Hill & Peter Wiltschinsky here on iTunes or cdbaby and from many other digital outlets.

As always, many thanks to Jonathan Keenan for the cover photography.

Enjoy!

Hill is Home and Jeff Beck - 'A Day in the Life'

After a successful second concert Robin has now arrived home.
It was something of a stressful journey as hold ups in security meant he boarded his plane with only minutes to spare.

However, he is delighted to be back, and we spent a very pleasant evening watching Jeff Beck at Ronnie Scott's on BBC4.
What a fantastic, original and virtuosic performance by Beck very ably supported by his excellent band.
How refreshing to see and hear him, at 64, still innovating - a master,not only in the art of the electric guitar, but also of music itself. Highly effective, lean arrangements utilising silence and space and brilliant dynamics.

For the next 6 days you can witness Jeff Beck at Ronnie Scott's, here, courtesy of the BBC.

I knew it would happen though.
I turned my back for a minute and Robin disappeared.
Then the distant sound of his Fender Stratocaster could be heard from his studio.
Robin just couldn't resist going off and having a quick blast...

One of our favourite songs on the programme was Beck's version of Lennon and McCartney's 'A Day in the Life'.
Here it is, not from Ronnie Scott's, but Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Tracks 9 & 10 - 'Arrival' - Lennon/McCartney & Carulli

Lennon and McCartney's song 'Eleanor Rigby', track 9 on 'Arrival', requires little introduction.
However you may be interested to know that in Woolton Parish Church's churchyard, the place where Lennon and McCartney first met, there is a tombstone bearing the name 'Eleanor Rigby'.........
This arrangement was made by Peter Wiltschinsky and has always been very popular in concert, often being played as an encore.

Track 10 is by Fernando Carulli, 'Nocturne de Salon Op.227:I.Allegro II.Largo III.Allegretto'.
Fernando Carulli, also sometimes referred to as Ferdinando Carulli, was born in Naples in 1770, and was to become one of the most popular classical guitar composers and players of his time.
Carulli initially started playing the cello, but at the age of 20 discovered the guitar, and fell in love with the instrument.
At that time there were no guitar teachers in his native Naples, so he taught himself, developing his own style of playing, which later enabled him to write an excellent tutor book.

By the age of 38 he moved to Paris, where he lived for the rest of his life, composing more than 400 works.
To learn more about Carulli you can visit here.