Moody Blues set with ASO

By BILL RICE
Gazette Reporter

ALBANY - The Albany Symphony Orchestra will perform with the Moody Blues at the Knickerbocker Arena at 8 p.m. July 1.

In a press conference Tuesday, Peter Kermani, chairman of the Albany Symphony board of directors, said 75 orchestra members will be used for the concert. The rock band is renting the arena and hiring the orchestra for the event.

Kermani said the performance should help the orchestra gain recognition from a broader audience. "We are trying to portray ourselves as 'everybody's orchestra,'" Kermani said.

The concert will be the first time the Albany Symphony Orchestra has performed in the Knickerbocker arena.

Knickerbocker spokesman Robert Belber said the arena, which has a maximum seating capacity of 17,000, will be configured to accommodate a crowd of between 8,000 and 10,000.

In 1967 the Moody Blues recorded an album titled "Days of Future Passed," on which the group was accompanied by a free­lance London orchestra.

The album contained a suite of songs including the hits "Tuesday Afternoon" and "Nights in White Satin."

For the purposes of the recording, the 48­member orchestra was called the "London Festival Orchestra."

In making the recording, the band never actually performed with the orchestra. The songs were recorded first by the band and the orchestral arrangements were added later.

In September 1992, 25 years after the release of "Days of Future Passed," Moody Blues re­created the blend of orchestral and rock music in a live concert at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

The success of that concert prompted the group to tour other cities with the orchestral arrangements. Last summer Moody Blues appeared at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center with a "pickup" orchestra.

The band is currently on a tour that includes performances with orchestras in 28 cities across the country.

The musical conductor for the tour is Larry Baird.

Tickets, priced at $37.50, $28.50 and $23.50, will go on sale Saturday at the Knickerbocker Arena box office. TicketMaster outlets or via Charge­by­Phone at 476­1000.

[Schenectady Gazette, April 13, 1994]