''Classic Diamonds'' is the ninth studio album by the German female

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

singer Doro Pesch. It was released worldwide in 2004 by

AFM Records AFM Records GmbH is a music label based in Schwalmstadt, Germany. They focus on the heavy metal musical genre, signing bands such as U.D.O., Doro, Lordi, Kotipelto, Masterplan, Nostradameus, Redlight King, and Annihilator. In 2005, Can ...

. The album presents new acoustic and symphonic arrangements for songs from Doro's repertoire, as well as some new compositions. The music is mostly played by the Classic Night Orchestra, an ensemble of young classical musicians that accompanied Doro in the following European tour.

Overview

Doro Pesch had already experienced mixing her powerful hard rock vocals with a symphonic orchestra in 2001 in a concert in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

and later in 2003 for a

benefit concert A benefit concert or charity concert is a type of musical benefit performance (e.g., concert, show, or gala) featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate h ...

Bochum Bochum (, ; ; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federa ...

. Excerpts from both shows are contained in the '' Für Immer'' DVD. The results of the two shows and the reaction of the fans prompted the German singer to plan a more organic approach to the symphonic facets of her songs, scheduling an album and a tour with an orchestra. The Classic Night Orchestra was recruited looking for young, open-minded, and multi-ethnic classical musicians, reaching the number of 30 elements. With the help of the classically trained band member

Oliver Palotai Oliver Palotai (born 17 March 1974) is a German musician, best known as a member of the power metal band Kamelot and of Doro Pesch's touring band. Career He made his name playing keyboards and guitar for Doro and keyboards for Circle II Circ ...

and producer Torsten Sickert, Doro arranged some old and new tracks for the orchestra and recorded them in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

. The album took almost eight months to complete and is the most expensive recording produced by Doro. Besides the eleven songs played with the orchestra, the album contains two tracks recorded live and acoustically in studio by Doro's band and two other tracks played by Torsten Sickert with an emulator tuned to classical instruments. The album was published at the same time of the European tour, where many elements of the Classic Night Orchestra played together with Doro's usual live band in most venues. At

Wacken Open Air Wacken Open Air (, abbreviated as W:O:A) is a Heavy metal music, heavy metal music festival, held annually since 1990 on the first weekend of August in the village of Wacken, Schleswig-Holstein, Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Almost all ...

festival on 6 August 2004, the full Classic Night Orchestra was on stage for the show. Various shows of the ''Classic Diamonds'' tour were filmed and later released on '' Classic Diamonds – The DVD''. The album was published in various formats by

, with and without bonus tracks and even as a deluxe 2-CD set, together with the '' Let Love Rain on Me'' EP. "

Breaking the Law "Breaking the Law" is a song by English heavy metal band Judas Priest, originally released on their 1980 album '' British Steel''. The song is one of the band's better known singles, and is readily recognized by its opening guitar riff. Comp ...

" is a cover of the

Judas Priest Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band formed in Birmingham in 1969. They have sold over 50 million albums and are frequently ranked as one of the greatest metal bands of all time. Judas Priest have also been referred to as one of the p ...

song, recorded on their 1980 album '' British Steel''. The album peaked at position No. 33 in the German Longplay chart.

Track listing

*Limited edition also has "Let Love Rain on Me" music video.

Personnel

* Doro Pesch – vocals

The Classic Night Orchestra

* Arnt Böhme – conductor, orchestral arrangements on tracks 1, 2, 5 * Hye-sin Tjo, Ardan Saguner, Nonna Parfenov, Elda Teqja, Marco Stankovic, Ingrid Illguth – first

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

s * Carolin Kosa, Arhan Saguner, Emma Fridman, Jee-eun Lee, Alexander Schneider – second violins * Wiebke Corssen, Urs Beckers, Ernst Hesse, Kristina Iczque, Manuela Crespi –

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

s
Lev Gordin
Martin Henneken, Jens Peter Jandausch, Luise Schroeter –

violoncello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C ...

s * Milivoj Plavsic –

contrabass Contrabass (from ) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchestral string family ...

* Daniel Edelhoff, Jörg Brohm –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

s * Wolfgang Mundt, Carsten Gronwald – second trumpets * Andreas Roth, Peter Schatlo –

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

s * Jan Böhme –

bass trombone The bass trombone (, ) is the bass instrument in the trombone family of brass instruments. Modern instruments are pitched in the same B♭ as the tenor trombone but with a larger bore, bell and mouthpiece to facilitate low register playing, and u ...

* Klaus 'Major' Heuser – acoustic guitars * Wolf Simon – drums * Mario Arrangonda – percussion

Additional musicians

* Johnny Dee – drums on tracks 10 and 14 *

Udo Dirkschneider Udo Dirkschneider (born 6 April 1952) is a German singer who first rose to fame with the Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Accept (band), Accept. After leaving the band in 1987, he formed the band U.D.O., in which he has also enjoyed commerci ...

– lead vocals on track 3 *

Nick Douglas Nick Douglas (born Nicholas Charles Douklias; August 31, 1967), also credited as Nick Mitchell, is an American rock musician, best known for being the bass player of Doro Pesch's band from 1990 to 2020. He released a solo album in 2001 and a s ...

– bass on tracks 10 and 14 * Claus Fischer– bass on track 4 *

Kai Hansen Kai Michael Hansen (born 17 January 1963) is a German musician who is the founder, lead guitarist and vocalist of power metal band Gamma Ray (band), Gamma Ray. He is also one of the co-founders of another power metal band Helloween, which he was ...

– guitars and bass on track 13, acoustic guitars, backing vocals *

– piano, orchestral arrangements on tracks 6, 7, 12, 15 * Dirk Schoppen – bass on track 4, backing vocals * Joe Taylor – acoustic guitar on tracks 10 and 14 * Martin Wagemann – solo trumpet * Oliver Best, Thomas Nathan, Klaus Vanscheidt – backing vocals

Production

* Torsten Sickert – producer, Midnight Orchestra on tracks 9 and 13, orchestral arrangements on tracks 3, 4, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15 * Chris Lietz – producer * Mika Jussila – mastering * Wieland Reißmann – engineer, orchestral arrangements on track 9 * Thorsten Rentsch – engineer, mixing

Charts

References

External links

American site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Classic Diamonds Doro (musician) albums 2004 albums AFM Records albums