Tenebrae

Today's Jesus Christ Superstar was arranged by Nick Ingman (a conductor/arranger who has worked with many in the pop music world as well as in film scoring; Shakespeare in Love is one of his more famous projects) and released in 1971. The LP includes a letter of reference from none other than Tim Rice, who sounds in it as if he was listening over my shoulder this Lent:
"Since the original record release of our rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar in October 1970, Andrew Lloyd Webber and I have been very lucky in that many musicians and singers have recorded their own treatments of selections from the opera. Some of these versions of Superstar have differed wildly from our original recording but as long as the new interpretation stands up in its own right as an interesting piece of musical production we don't mind whether it's performed by a symphony orchestra, a rock group, a middle-of-the-road choir or by a brass band (all of which has happened). If it's serious, and if it's musical, we are delighted and feel it can only help the work as a whole."
He goes on to particularly praise Nick's orchestrations, which are certainly pretty interesting, a mix of symphony and chorus not quite as easy-listening as Percy Faith but not quite rock and roll, either.
The other interesting bit in Tim Rice's blurb is toward the end, where he says, "I knew that we had no need to worry about Nick's work not being serious or musical, and I knew that we would have no need to avoid speaking to Nick for the next few years. (There are a few gentlemen who have tackled Superstar in such a way that I do not feel a strong friendship would be forged were Andrew and I to meet them.)"
Ouch!
And speaking of arrangements not quite passing muster with the creators, Greg sent me this li'l tidbit. Guess I won't be listening to that version next year!