When Brian Wilson passed in 2025, Sean Ono Lennon described him as “our American Mozart — a one-of-a-kind genius from another world.” It is the reference to Mozart that really leans into tonight’s performance of his work by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (RLPO).
Many of The Beach Boys songs are exceptionally well suited to orchestral arrangements, including full philharmonic orchestras. Their music is often far more harmonically sophisticated than standard pop songs, particularly the material written and produced by Brian Wilson. He was heavily influenced by orchestral and classical composers and already used instruments such as French horns, harpsichords and strings in the original recordings. The album Pet Sounds especially lends itself to orchestral reinterpretation because it already blurred the line between pop music and chamber orchestration.
Indeed, Pet Sounds was released sixty years ago this week, so the RLPO performing it in its entirety was both fitting and timely. After the orchestra was seated, conductor Richard Balcombe took to the stage dressed in white jeans and the Beach Boys’ iconic blue-and-white striped shirt. Tapping the railing on his rostrum to begin proceedings, the RLPO launched into ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’. To recreate the Beach Boys’ sound, five singers shared the vocals: Graham Bickley, Stuart Matthew Price, James Alexander Gibbs, Jon Boydon and Steve Trowell.
I’m going to presume that everyone knows Pet Sounds, so I won’t repeat the track listing here. Suffice to say, the musicians did a wonderful job recreating the album. Highlights were the two instrumentals, ‘Let’s Go Away for a While’ and ‘Pet Sounds’. The audience particularly enjoyed ‘Sloop John B’. The sweeping emotional arcs of songs like ‘Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)’ and ‘Caroline, No’ really do benefit from symphonic scale.
The second half of the show was a journey through the Beach Boys’ catalogue, encompassing those early 1960s surfing hits, some deep cuts, and landing in the 1980s. Particularly high points were the two tracks from the Smile era, ‘Surf’s Up’ and ‘Heroes and Villains’, songs that contain unusual modulations and jazz-influenced harmonies that classical musicians appreciate.
The final four songs, ‘Kokomo’, ‘California Girls’, ‘Barbara Ann’ and ‘Surfin’ USA’ , had the audience rapturously singing along and even dancing in the aisles. The musicians encored, of course, with ‘Good Vibrations’.
In some ways, Brian Wilson’s best work sits closer to composers like George Gershwin or Burt Bacharach than to straightforward guitar pop. That is why orchestras find the music rewarding to perform rather than merely nostalgic.
Conductor Richard Balcombe dedicated the evening’s performance to Dame Felicity Lott, who had passed away the previous week.
Reviewer – Adrian Cork
On – 22.05.2026
