Master Pieces

Label variation: Track names are left-aligned with writers' credits below each. Webster's dictionary defines masterpieces as "anything done or made with extraordinary skill." World-famous painters Chagall, Cézanne, Matisse, Monet, Raischenberg, Rembrandt and the like turned them out on canvas, while immortal music masters such as Bach, Chopin, Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Wagner "did their thing(s)" in manuscript form. All of which brings us not so subtly to the subject at hand, Apollo 100, the unique-sounding British aggregation that has achieved international recognition through its recorded treatments of classical masterpieces. Comprised of the cream of Britain's recording studio musicians, Apollo 100 is the brain child of its leader, Tom Parker, a brilliant young arranger-musician. By lacing the basic chamber music sound with overtones of contemporary rock, Parker and Apollo 100 succeeded in capturing the imagination of record buyers everywhere with one of their very first singles releases, "Joy" (Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring from J. S. Bach's Cantata 147). This album, Apollo 100's second, offers a program featuring old favorites dressed in new form by Beethoven, Chopin and Rossini; plus three exciting originals and the group's unique versions of the current favorites "Nutrocker" (Tchaikovsky revisited), "Amazing Grace," "Telstar" and "Popcorn." Special thanks to Lyzon Pictures & Frames, Inc., Nashville, for their cooperation and assistance. Small painting on left: "Woman in Blue Reading a Letter" by