Year: 1974
Country: The Netherlands
Running time: 20 mins. 21 secs.
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The saying goes that all's well that ends well, and this applies particularly well to the closing track of the fourth studio album from the Dutch progressive rock group Focus. The title track of said album Hamburger Concerto takes up a lot of space: almost the entire B side of the vinyl release, and runs almost precisely the 20 minutes that the compositions of our preferred format naturally aspire to.
The former studio releases of the group, In and Out of Focus (1970), Moving Waves (1972) and the double vinyl Focus 3 (1973) had already shown plenty of promise and given us a couple of classics in shorter format. The humorous Hocus Pocus and, in particular, the beautiful instrumental guitar rock piece Sylvia had received plenty of radio play and by 1974 made a name for the group led by keyboardist, flutist and singer Thjis Van Leer, with guitarist Jan Akkerman. The fourth studio album turned out to be the high point of their career, along with the earlier favourite Moving Waves. In its wake, they released only three more, noticeably weaker studio works before disbanding in 1978. A few further attempts to reawaken the Focus name were made in 1985, 2002 and 2006, without much success.
For myself, Hamburger Concerto is a late find. In the early 1980's, during my most eager prog collection phase, I mistook it for a live album and therefore never checked it out, being already then as well as now only interested in studio albums. It wasn't until 2008 that I ran into a CD version during my summer holiday in Kuopio, Finland, and while standing at the record shelf in Levykauppa Äx suddenly realised that I had missed an important studio album by a group I had always liked.
Upon listening, Hamburger Concerto turned out to be a return to form following the more jazz influenced and uneven Focus 3 that had only had a couple of interesting tracks to offer in addition to the already classic instrumental Sylvia. This time, there were once again more influences from classical music, which seemed to suit the group a lot better. I must admit that the long title track didn't make much of an impression when I first listened to it, but has really grown on me since.
The 20-minute Hamburger Concerto is mainly an instrumental piece, apart from occasional comical, nonsensical vocal acrobatics by Van Leer, already familiar from the classic track Hocus Pocus. Like in a real "concerto", the dominating presence is that of an organ. To turn this into a genuine rock track, Akkerman's guitars and new drummer Colin Allen's percussion take the foreground wherever suitable. On top of this, Van Leer plays his flute a lot.
All this skill and inspiration combined already results in an above average prog instumental but still not something quite worthy of a place in top 20. What really elevates the track into classic status is the stupefying Grand Finale. It begins at approximately 16 mins. and 50 secs. into the piece and uses the last three and a half minutes of its running time.
I don't see how any prog fan can be anything but blown away by the sudden, even a little unexpected explosion of pure genius, as Van Leer's vocal work is suddenly replaced by a massive wall of sound generated mainly by the organ and complemented by a truly inspired piece of piano work. What has been going on for quite a while as a competent, clearly above average prog rock instrumental suddenly becomes something truly memorable during these closing minutes, thus bringing to an unforgettable climax, and at the same time closing the golden era of the Dutch group.
Without the immense power of its finale, Hamburger Concerto would never have made the top 20. Had the preceding minutes been on that same level, it would easily have climbed to top 10, as one of the greatest lengthy prog works ever made in Continental Europe.
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