THE SONG REMAINS the SAME

Yes you did read correctly, it does say orchestra in the title. Rock and roll merges with classical music as conductor/arranger Brent Havens presents The Music of Led Zeppelin, a program he scored that extends the listening experience of Led Zeppelin's timeless tunes. Now you would ask as I did, how can they maintain the power of such a super screaming rock and roll mega-band, riff for riff, while blending in new musical colors with 50, count em', 50 orchestral instruments?

Think about incorporating just the double-reed instruments-the oboe, English Horn, bassoon, add in the violins, violas, cellos, basses, and woodwinds or more pure sounds from instruments like a flute or a clarinet, then add the entire brass section, like the trumpet, trombones, French horns, and the lower brass like the bass trombone and tuba and you begin to see just how large that task is. Then add a monster electric guitar, bass and drums with the addition of the electric violin and you have to go and listen for yourself to see if it is all that it seems to be. In conductor Havens' words, "The Music of Led Zeppelin was to take the music as close to the originals as we could and then add some colors to enhance what Zep had done. The wonderful thing with an orchestra is that you have an entire palette to call upon."