Paul Shoemaker

Fire was Hounslow's finest psychedelic rock group. Fronted by Dave Lambert (later to join The Strawbs), the band recorded two legendary singles for Decca before signing to PYE Records and recording this legendary Psychedelic Rock rarity in 1969. Featuring guest appearances by guitarist Paul Brett and Dave Cousins of The Strawbs, the album failed to sell in significant quantities at the time of release. Now hailed as a masterpiece of the genre, the album featured in Record Collector's Top Ten sought after rare albums list. This new remastered edition features four bonus tracks, namely both sides of th two Fire singles released by Decca in 1968 along with an extensive booklet featuring new liner notes.

Paul O’Dette’s newly recorded personal selection of favourite pieces from the pinnacle of lute repertoire by 'the Liszt of the lute'. Many of these pieces are melancholy but consistently lovely, enhanced by Paul O'Dette's new lute: a 2008 8-course by Malcolm Prior, after Sixtus Rauwolf, Augsburg 1590. O'Dette's 5-cd set of John Dowland was awarded no less than 5 Diaspasons and is due for reissue in the near future. His next release will be of Giovanni Antonio Terzi [1580-1620] provisionally titled 'Unplayable chords'.

Fire was Hounslow's finest psychedelic rock group. Fronted by Dave Lambert (later to join The Strawbs), the band recorded two legendary singles for Decca before signing to PYE Records and recording this legendary Psychedelic Rock rarity in 1969. Featuring guest appearances by guitarist Paul Brett and Dave Cousins of The Strawbs, the album failed to sell in significant quantities at the time of release. Now hailed as a masterpiece of the genre, the album featured in Record Collector's Top Ten sought after rare albums list. This new remastered edition features four bonus tracks, namely both sides of th two Fire singles released by Decca in 1968 along with an extensive booklet featuring new liner notes.

The performances by the Emerson, Fitzwilliam and Brodsky are quite different while equally valid. The Fitzwilliam version is richly romantic and emotionally charged, sort of the "Leopold Stokowski" performance. The Emerson quartet version is at times fast, tense, highly energetic, sort of like an "Arturo Toscanini" version. The Brodsky version is carefully crafted, balanced, slightly understated, like a version by "Sir Adrian Boult." Why on earth would anyone want to understate things? Not because, as some people seem to feel, Sir Adrian and the British are afraid of expressing feelings, but because by understating the emotionalism in the music other aspects of the music are more clearly appreciated, and the overall musical experience is richer. Therefore one could easily find the Brodsky version to be the best version by a British quartet.

Arthur Fiedler /BPO - Gershwin: An American in Paris / Rhapsody in Blue
Vinyl Rip in 24-Bit/96-kHz | FLAC tracks | Full Scan Covers | MU, RS | 605 MB 3% recovery
1960 | Genre: Classical | Label: RCA | LSC-2367 | US original pressing
RCA Living Stereo, shaded dog label
Listed in TAS (The Absolute Sound)

Gershwin’s instrumental masterpiece is the brief Rhapsody in Blue, written first for solo piano (not by Gershwin, who reportedly could neither read nor write music notation) then orchestrated in several versions by its commissioner, band leader Paul Whiteman. The work is a brief and effective encyclopaedic showcase for the rhythmic and instrumental trademarks of the "jazz" style. Fiedler’s performance of the arrangement for symphony orchestra is one of the most effective.

(Paul Shoemaker - MusicWeb)