THE LIVERPOOL ORATORIO MEDLEY
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It was a time when I was getting ready for the release of my book "Paul McCartney. Biography". One day I was invited to the concert of a young Polish jazz vocalist Kasia Karasek in the Royal Lazienki Park in Warsaw. Kasia gave a great performance but a person who attracted my attention even more than her was Ewa Jusewicz. In the Lazienki Park she accompanied Kasia on the piano . Later I learnt that Ewa collaborated with the Ateneum Theatre in Warsaw. One aspect of her musical ability was interesting to me in particular. Not only could she perfectly play classical themes but also she performed the best standards of pop and rock music - by heart and effortlessly. I asked Ewa if she liked Paul McCartney's music and when she said so I invited her to take part in promotion of my book. On the 28th of June 1991 the world premiere of Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio took place at Liverpool Cathedral. In 1992 I was a happy owner of the EMI Classics stereo VHS cassette with Paul's first major classical composition. It was my idea to create a piano medley which would consist of the most beautiful melodies from Liverpool Oratorio. Ewa's reaction was enthusiastic. I remember lending her the EMI Classics video cassette and mentioning the two arias which in my opinion ought to have been placed in her potpourri - "Drinking Song" and "Save The Child" (of course she accepted both of them). Having analysed a high quality performance of all eight oratorio movements Ewa Jusewicz made a final selection of themes and created the structure. The medley which she compiled lasts 13 minutes and perfectly reflects melodic beauty of Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio. I still have it on tape. Ewa Jusewicz played the Liverpool Oratorio Medley three times, in three different places - on the 27th of May 1992 at the Confetti Club in 1/5 Wybrzeze Helskie Street in Warsaw (on the right bank of the Vistula river) during the official promotional event for my book, on the 19th of June 1992 at the Stodola Students' Club in Warsaw (celebration of Paul McCartney's 50th birthday) and during the promotional event for my book at the Town Centre of Culture in Legionowo near Warsaw. A short part of the Liverpool Oratorio Medley was also presented on the Polish Radio in spring 1993. Today such experiments are widely known - e.g. Liverpool Oratorio Suite from the album "Sir Paul McCartney's Liverpool" (by Quatuor La Flute Enchantee Quartet) - but in 1992 my idea was pretty innovative. Both I and Ewa felt like pioneers. The full oratorio was performed in Budapest on the 5th of July and on the 7th of July 1992. The official Polish premiere of Liverpool Oratorio took place in Cracow on the 29th of June 1993. So owing to Ewa and me music from Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio was performed for the first time in Eastern Europe.