Kiwi in ‘Hey Jude’ chorus
Violin virtuoso who played with The Beatles to be celebrated
It’s one of the most recognisable choruses in pop music, and a Kiwi can be found among its ‘‘nah nah nahs’’.
The Beatles’ Hey Jude is turning 50 this year, but a milestone of a more classical kind will honour the late violin virtuoso from Manawatu¯ who took part in its recording.
Alan Loveday, recognised as one of the finest classical violinists of the 20th century, will be honoured with a tribute concert by New Zealand Symphony Orchestra soloists in his home city of Palmerston North in June.
But it is his contribution to one of pop’s enduring classics that will likely resonate most with Kiwis.
Loveday was recording with his Academy of St Martin in the Fields colleagues at Trident Studios in London, in August 1968, next door to where The Beatles were rehearsing.
They were asked to lay down an orchestral overdub to the Fab Four’s basic track for the song.
It was an unplanned proposition, recalls daughter Baz Loveday, and many of her father’s orchestra mates were not enthused about it, especially when they were asked to also add their voices to the famous ‘‘nah nah nah’’ chorus.
But Alan Loveday enjoyed The Beatles and was happy to contribute, she said.
He would become a session violinist on several of their albums.
Baz Loveday said she was touched that NZSO soloists would pay tribute to her father, who died in 2016, aged 88. ‘‘His recording of The Four
Seasons was the theme tune of my childhood,’’ she said.
The Academy of St Martin in the Fields’ 1969 recording of Vivaldi’s masterpiece, for which Loveday was the solo violinist, is regarded as one of the great classical recordings.
The orchestra’s founder and long-term conductor, Sir Neville Marriner, chose Alan Loveday as soloist because of his ‘‘beautiful, unmannered playing’’. He said Loveday ‘‘was the best individual violin player that the Royal College of Music ever produced’’.
As a tribute to Loveday, and as part of its own 20th anniversary celebrations, the Regent On Broadway in Palmerston North is presenting The Four Seasons, played by this country’s best.
NZSO soloists, performing as the Regent Festival Orchestra, will present the showpiece on
June 6 at 7.30pm.
The performance has been greeted with pleasure by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields itself. Its chief executive Alan Watt was delighted the Regent was acknowledging Loveday.
He said the orchestra ‘‘was privileged to have this immensely talented musician shaping the sound of the ensemble in our early years’’.
The Manawatu¯ Camera Club has been running a competition inspired by The Four Seasons. Short-listed entries will be projected on to the huge Regent screen as the work is played.
Loveday ‘‘was the best individual violin player that the Royal College of Music ever produced’’. Sir Neville Marriner