Ian Crisp wrote (and also Robert and Richard mentioned it):

>I seem to remember that Deep Purple and the London Symphony Orchestra did
>something similar in 1970, give or take a year or two.  But not much in
>between, as far as I know offhand.

Deep Purple actually did two works in that direction.  There was a piece
called *April* published in 1969 which combined hard-rock band and chamber
ensemble and the (in)famous concerto for group and orchestra (conducted by
Malcolm Arnold) also published in 1969.  Jon Lord (the keyboarder of Deep
Purple) went on with these *experiments* on basically two LPs *Gemini
Suite* and *Sarabande*.  I never really liked this kind of mix.  Usually
the rock band is much to loud or unbalanced compared to the orchestra and
what you got was more a rock band and an orchestra playing at the same time
but not really together.  In April and Sarabande the mix is maybe nearly
successful.

There were several other recordings or projects of this kind (e.g.  Darryl
Way - violinist of Curved Air - did a concerto for electic violin, rock
band and orchestra in the late 7ties) and especially in France some
musicians published some kind of Jazz-Classic works (Solials piano concerto
- which is for piano, bass, drums and orchestra - or Loussiers el.  guitar
concerto).  For me all these works never really fit together, the composers
never managed to create something even, unique or nicely blended but
... de gustibus ....

Achim Breiling