Kathleen Ferrier died in 1953 at the height of her career, after a long battle against cancer, leaving behind a unique catalogue of recorded song that seems as fresh today as ever. And recording technology was advanced enough then to allow us today to get a clear sense of this remarkable woman's presence and vitality.
    How many contraltos, how many singers even, can you think of, who, over four decades after their death, can arrive in the classic top-twenty charts at number 2? What exactly is the nature of Kathleen Ferrier's enduring charm that makes her as appealing to second-year students in bed-sits as she is to your mother-in-law or grandparents? Think this over as you listen to Blow the wind Southerly. Miss Ferrier was always a Decca recording artist, and here is an intelligent and charming show-case of her talent. She comes across today as she must have done in real life : a thoroughly decent human-being with great technical gifts allied to a strong sense of fun and a total lack of snobbery - "the Lancashire lass who conquered the world." Digital reprocessing is, in this instance at least, largely unnecessary - today's 'must-have' marketing add-on - what's wrong with analogue reprocessing anyway? Still, this will do to replace my scratchy old L.P.
    John Myatt