Queen Bohemian Rhapsody

The bowl in question in the title of Queen's 2004 release On Fire at the Bowl is the MK Bowl in Milton Keynes, England, a venue that Queen performed at on June 5, 1982. That concert is documented on this 25-track double-disc set, one of many double-live albums that Queen have released throughout and after their career…

This album hums and growls, it whispers very delicately and causes a pleasant feeling again and again. It is the warm, deep and full tone of the double bass that has taken hold of the young Viennese soloist Dominik Wagner. This is already the fourth album he is releasing on the label Berlin Classics. As on the three previous albums, he has placed the double bass at the center, and yet everything is different on the new album "Double Bass Rhapsody". Here, the double bass is heard exclusively as a solo instrument, in a quartet and even in a sextet. For this, Dominik Wagner has enlisted the best colleagues he can imagine: Christoph Wimmer and Herbert Mayr, both principal double bassists of the Vienna Philharmonic, who share with him an authentic connection to the Viennese style. And José Trigo, deputy principal double bass of the BR Symphony Orchestra, who, like Dominik Wagner, also studied with Professor Dorin Marc. "In order to bring out the special features of the double bass, there is no need for any other instrument" explains Dominik Wagner.

By 1979, Queen was considered among rock's elite class, and rightfully so. With a string of hit albums, singles, and sold-out tours to their credit, the group was about to enter a new musical phase of its career with 1980's mega-hit The Game. And since bootleg copies of their concerts were fetching exorbitant prices among their fans, what better way to close phase one but with their first official live double album, Live Killers…

The fourth Queen album released in the late 1975 has long been regarded as a classic. The brilliant mix of hard rock, pop, opera, music hall camp and traditional folk, utilising multi layered guitars, crunching riffs, vocal harmonies, piano flourishes, a harp, a ukulele and 'no synthesisers' all combine to make it one of the great albums of the last three decades. Their faultless musicianship, with the 'Sonic Volcano' rhythm section of Roger Taylor and John Deacon, Brian May's guitar virtuosity and the spectacular Freddie Mercury up front, led to Queen being crowned as one of the greatest rock acts of all time.