Stephen Mejias

Did you know that we recently remastered our Rhapsody? The album is a tribute to George Gershwin, conducted by pianist Hyperion Knight, and it's good, good fun on the hi-fi.

When it was time to repress the disc, John Atkinson (now wearing his audio engineer hat, which is a little like a baseball cap but with more sliders and knobs) decided to give the old songs a listen.

Somewhat surprisingly, he heard a few things that he didn't like, things that he knew could have been done better. After all, it has been over 12 years since the album was originally recorded, and maybe JA's system has grown to be more resolving, more illuminating. Whatever. In any case, JA fixed it up a bit.

You should hear Rhapsody now.

"I think it sounds even better than the original," JA whispered to me one day (as if it was a secret, or something).

Shout it loud, man, shout it proud!

If you're not already familiar with Rhapsody, there's no better time to take a listen. It's a fine package, with very special liner notes by Wes Phillips. Wes offers "Thirteen Ways of Listening to a Recording Session (with apologies to Wallace Stevens)." It's one of my favorite of all Stereophile pieces. If you don't buy the album, you should definitely read Wes's notes.

And then buy the album. You can purchase Rhapsody from our secure eCommerce page. (Do it!)