Standing Stone

Standing Stone is Paul McCartney's second full-length release of original classical music (coming after 1991's Liverpool Oratorio) and was issued shortly after Flaming Pie's release in 1997. The world premiere performance was held at The Royal Albert Hall on 14 October 1997. Following up on 1991's Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio, the Standing Stone project was composed out of a long poem McCartney authored and was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Lawrence Foster at EMI's Abbey Road Studios. Unlike Liverpool Oratorio, this new project is not an operatic performance of a story, but an instrumental one, though it employs the use of a choir. The cover for the album is actually one of the many photos taken by Linda McCartney during late 1969/early 1970 that would initially be seen on the inside gatefold cover of Paul's first album McCartney. Incidentally, this project was her husband's last release before Linda died of breast cancer on 17 April 1998, having been diagnosed almost three years earlier.