It's the combination of the two 'l's sandwiched between the two 'i's I find difficult to distinguish, Bryn, particularly before I've put my lenses in.

If we add live performances to the mix (and I wish you'd mentioned at the outset that that was what you were discussing: you caused a fruitless search for a recording which does not exist ) then I'd still plump for the UK premiere. The fact that the work was new and that the audience really didn't know quite what to expect but found they really liked what they were hearing seems to have enlivened the proceedings considerably; the build in the last section has, for me, an impetus and exuberance which no subsequent performance has ever recaptured.

Having been there I can vouch for that (though I remember thinking that the "build" was a bit overdone!). Thanks for the summary of the commercial recordings too. As I implied, I've probably heard the piece enough times for now, although I suppose I could get another request for it when I'm back at home tomorrow after my few Reich-free days in Yorkshire.

The extreme clarity (music and performance) at the opening of The Axe Manual itself is quite arresting! 

At long, long last: the new Hyperion double disc set of Steven Osborne playing Tippett's piano music: all four sonatas plus the Fantasia on a theme of Handel and, most importantly for me, the Piano Concerto. It's the fifth version to make it to disc, but the field has always been dominated by the premiere recording (Ogdon/Colin Davis), with the later arrivals displaying various problems, quite the worst for me being in the wonderful double cadenza with the celesta, where all three present an identical problem of a wrong note on the celesta, though it's difficult to establish whether it's a mistake in the part or the actual hired celesta has one particular note very sharp: the problem happens on Tippett's own recording, so I'm guessing the latter. I'm happy to say that this recording isn't spoiled by this problem, although I mentally braced myself as we approached.

More importantly, it proves itself at least the equal of the Ogdon recording. It's by no means a copycat recording: Osborne's pianism is very different from Ogdon's, but just as valid. Martyn Brabbins has the measure of the orchestral side, too: the orchestration is rather unusual, particularly the long tendrils of wind lines (sometimes even in canon) which can rather clog the sound up, but he keeps things well under control, and more than has the measure of those places where the sound opens out, such as the first climax, like the rise of sun over an icy landscape. There's masses of lower-level detail which is much clearer than in any of the other versions, in places subtly shifting my previous perceptions of the work. I'm on my second listen in a row now: that's a very good sign. A happy Dough: I've been waiting for this disc since it was first mentioned a year ago, and the wait's been worth it.

Incidentally, either this recording or one of the performances it was based on turns up at the end of AP next Thursday.

I've done just the first disc so far, martle (mainly because I just had to go back to the concerto): the Fantasia is spot-on, and he makes the first sonata sound so easy that he can let it flow and dance excatly as he pleases, which pleases me too. I'm saving the second disc - with the final three sonatas -  until later, but will report back, promise.

Before returning to the Tippett, and as the evening's repast settles slowly, another treasure from the little box which arrived today from MDT: something I never expected to see transferred to CD, though I've been hoping for it for years, as has another member I'm aware of. Gordon Crosse's 1966 Three Choirs Festival commission, Changes. (No, no Bowie connection.) Stylistically it's not what you'd expect from Lyrita, approximating to a head-on collision between the Britten of the Spring Symphony and MND and later period Stravinsky. For a work which had to fit into the accepted ethos of that festival, it manages to square the circle of being 'approachable' without in any way compromising the composer's language: the work's pacing is sure-footed, its choral writing idiomatic, the orchestral virtuosic, vivid and exciting. The performance is an absolute cracker, with performers at the top of their game: I find it difficult to imagine a better recording in terms of performance or sound.

Norman Del Mar conducts the LSO and Chorus, with the Orpington Junior Singers and the Highgate School for Boys Choir, and most crucially, two fabulous soloists: the soprano Jennifer Vyvyan and the baritone John Shirley-Quirk. There's a sizeable bonus in the shape of Crosse's Ariadne, a concertante work for solo oboe and twelve players: like all of Crosse's work I've heard, the music isn't always easy, yet it never quite confounds or repulses: quite the opposite, it insinuates: he's another of those composers who creates 'earworms' which slide unbidden into the aural memory, inviting further hearing. Indeed, there are sections of Changes which one feels one's always known, even on first hearing, like the exquisite uncoiling setting of Blake's The Door of Death, sung to perfection by Jennifer Vyvyan.

There is, however, one sadness about this disc: the composer, still very much alive, retired from composing some years ago. Whilst I can't but admire anyone who decides to stop while still ahead of the game, it still strikes me as a loss that this able and individual voice is silenced.

Jean Barraque - Concerto for clarinet, vibraphone + 6 instrumental groups ; and Le temps restitue.

I'm not usually a big fan of hard-ass post-war serialism, but Barraque is really much more than that (and with a big foot in the past as well) and I've always searched out opportunities to hear his music. Annoyingly, I only have the rest of his output on vinyl which I can't play at present. It's not just for the *new music enthusiast. I've often wondered if there are others who feel likewise. Anybody have the complete works CDs? What are those performances like?

I've just finished Paul Griffiths' biography of Barraque (entitled "The sea on fire"). I've never been that impressed by Griffiths' writing (especially not when he was a rather bigoted Times music critic) but he's always been informative and intelligent on both Barraque and Boulez - obviously his kind of music. However "The sea on fire" was rather disappointing despite the wealth of information not found elsewhere - not enough musical commentary, no photographs, the occasional incomprehensible sentence and an irritating decision to always refer to the composer in the 2nd person singular.

*New music ? What am I saying? He died in 1973.

Thanks, CD. I think I might treat myself.