When picturing Canadian musicians Steven Page, Craig Northey, Andy Maize and Jason Plumb taking part in the upcoming performance of The Beatles’ Abbey Road album in its entirety, it’s hard not to picture the four in unison reenacting the iconic album’s cover as they stride towards The Banff Centre’s Shaw Amphitheatre on June 27.
The Art of Time Ensemble, a collection of classical musicians led by concert pianist Andrew Burashko, are no strangers to The Beatles repertoire, having first tackled Abbey Road in 2009, then bringing Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band to life last year at The Banff Centre. The ensemble always strives to bring a balance with The Beatles’ beloved harmonies, while offering a fresh perspective on a timeless classic album.
“There were seven singers involved in that first project and since then we had done Sgt. Pepper with just four singers, so it’s a new version in that the first time we did it without any of The Beatles’ harmonies and this time we’re adding them all in,” Burashko said.
“All four (Page, Northey, Maize, Plumb) will pretty much be singing the whole time as opposed to taking turns – it’s the entire album from beginning to end.”
Burashko said the only way the musicians involved can pull a project of this scale off is if there is a lot of honest love and respect for The Beatles’ music, which he says is in no short supply.
“Everybody in the band and all the singers are big fans, and Steven and I in particular have a really deep love for this and Craig is also a big Beatle nut too,” Burashko said.
The main challenge the ensemble faced was the music was so perfect to begin with, and the real challenge was finding the fine line between remaining absolutely true to the spirit of the music and what it was intended to be and seeing how much they could change things and experiment.
“I suppose the problems, if there were any, and there really weren’t many, all happened in the arranging stage,” Burashko said. “Basically, each song is arranged by a different musician/composer, and a couple of them are from the classical world and the rest are all pop and jazz guys, master musicians, and in working on the arrangements there were times when I felt the arrangers were going a bit far and not serving the music enough. But other than that, it’s been nothing but a pleasure – its just so much fun to play The Beatles.
“It was just a question of my calling, my deciding who would do what and then inviting them to do those particular songs. They’re all pros and really wonderful people and happy to be a part of it.”
The Art of Time Ensemble’s title comes from the idea that music is the art of time. Burashko looks at music as temporal, and a kind of reorganization of time or, as he puts it, “A musician’s sense of time is such a finger print, the first thing I notice about a musician is their sense of time.
“That is a huge part of my mission. Its all about great music, it doesn’t matter if it was written 300 years ago or today, I’m interested in all of it and I’m interested in juxtaposing those things as well. But with The Beatles – we’re not trying to make them classical, we’re really trying to keep it where they initially were.
“I think everything they ever did is timeless and I do think that the album, being their last in many ways, was their most adventurous. However, we experimented with the music we didn’t change what anyone would expect from The Beatles.”
