It’s understandable that one could be sceptical of a release such as this. After all, Mr Wakeman has cashed in on his Yes connection as well as his own back catalogue more times than I can possibly count. Yessonata certainly has all the trappings of a cash grab…
… but what a glorious cash grab it is: pure unadulterated sonic beauty straight from Wakeman’s Steinway into your ears.
It’s fair to assume that most punters who go to a Rick Wakeman concert expect to hear a bit of Yes, so the maestro decided to form The Yes Suite for band and choir to be played at the London Palladium last year. It proved so popular that he adapted the idea for solo piano and called it Yessonata, incorporating a multitude of themes from Wakeman’s time with Yes (because you’ll be damned if you hear him playing any Relayer).
Yessonata was played on Rick’s recent tours in North and South America and was played slightly differently each time, with our favourite caped crusader juggling all the themes in his head. The success of Yessonata warranted a physical release; although it was planned to be a vinyl-only affair, huge demand has made it so that a CD version will arrive a month later.
In this iteration of Yessonata, Wakeman begins with that all-too-familiar introduction to Awaken, toying with the theme before moving in a different direction. Soon we’re into the very recognisable introductions of Long Distance Runaround and Close to the Edge, but not all the themes are immediately identifiable, even to this hardened Yes fan. For example, it took some Googling to realise Wakeman had included a snippet of The Meeting from the ABWH album.
Wakeman deftly weaves all these fragments together so that the piece flows naturally. According to the press kit, there are thirty of them but I could only count seventeen. I’m sure I’m missing some though.
0:00 Awaken
0:28 Parallels
1:08 Long Distance Runaround
1:58 Close to the Edge
3:29 South Side of the Sky
4:29 Siberian Khatru
5:07 Wonderous Stories
7:03 Awaken
8:50 And You and I
9:15 Close to the Edge
10:36 Roundabout
12:27 The Meeting
14:15 Heart of the Sunrise
15:10 South Side of the Sky
17:46 Awaken
19:20 And You and I
19:48 The Revealing Science of God
Awaken and Close to the Edge are the stars of the show, with multiple lengthy fragments of each song featured – I’m glad about this because they’re also some of Yes’s best work. Wakeman makes sure to include a healthy dose of Roundabout, one of the group’s most popular songs (which is growing even more popular due to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure).
Wakeman notoriously hated Tales from Topographic Oceans, and I wondered if he would even feature any of the album’s 80 minutes within Yessonata. I was also wondering how the piece would end when Wakeman surprised me by putting the bombastic intro to The Revealing Science of God right at the end of the song. I’m sure this is Wakeman’s idea of the joke, lobbing in some music from one of his most hated albums to look like an afterthought. Ironically, Tormato doesn’t even get a look in; not even an Onward.
Side Two features The King Arthur Piano Suite, a similar blend of themes from The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (I just love spelling out that title in full). I’m grateful for the inclusion as I had previously overlooked Wakeman’s second studio album, preferring the hard-hitting The Six Wives of Henry VIII and the more rock-oriented No Earthly Connection to this operatic and rather staid album. With a little more patience, there’s a lot of beauty to King Arthur and that’s exactly what Wakeman taps into on the Piano Suite.
As there’s less music to draw from, this piece features longer, more recognisable fragments from King Arthur and presents them in album order, too. As such, it’s a more cohesive suite but does occasionally become repetitive; during Guinevere, Wakeman launches into a second verse that sounds exactly the same as the first and feels redundant. Was he on autopilot? No matter, though, as the rest of the suite sounds lovely.
As there’s nothing original to hear, it’s not the kind of album I’d fork over £25 for the vinyl of, even if it is clad in a beautiful Roger Dean cover featuring a spaceman riding a giant blue lizard. But for fans of nostalgia, Wakeman’s trip down memory lane is a ‘wonderous’ one which should be heard.
TRACK LISTING
01. Yessonata (20:24)
02. The King Arthur Piano Suite (20:04)
Total Time – 40:27
MUSICIAN
Rick Wakeman – Steinway Model D Concert Grand Piano
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Fragile Records | Cherry Red Records
Catalogue#: FRLP101 / FR1CD101
Country of Origin: U.K.
Date of Release: 4th October 2024 (LP) | 8th November 2024 (CD)
LINKS
Rick Wakeman – Website | Facebook | YouTube | X | Instagram
