Has scherbakov a recording of those?  I think he does.  I've listened to his cd of them (I think), and some other, much older and cracklier recording, and infinitely preferred K.S.'s.  I still haven't quite gotten in to them (I certainly have no memories of any of them at the moment, though it's not unlikely that I might have found one or two striking at the time).

Just been listening to Birtwistle's Chronometer. Not a piece you hear about very often - his only purely electronic composition as far as I know, all of whose sounds are derived from (surprise!) clocks, electronically modified using early (1973) computer technology devised by Peter Zinovieff. What interested me particularly was the similarity between many of these sounds and those produced, from different sources and using different technology, a decade later for The Mask of Orpheus in collaboration with Barry Anderson at IRCAM. Like the electronic episodes in Mask, it doesn't really sound to me like Birtwistle. Does anyone else know it?

Spinning until a couple of minutes ago:



Now there's a piece. (Harawi, I mean.) Still his most sadly neglected, I would say if anyone were foolish enough to ask me.

This evening I needed some cheering up (and indeed waking up). So this is now spinning:


And then waiting in a patient little queue are this little lot, picked up at Gramex on Monday for £19:

A coincidence! I was just listening to Harawi. Dondou tchil Dondou tchil Dondou tchil Dondou tchil Dondou tchil tchil tchil tchil tchil

(Insert exclamation points as needed)

Andrew Manze, AAM/JSB/V Cons and double V cons etc.

Got it from the library yesterday, it's spinning on the laptop and I'm listening on headphones - a new combination for me.

Completing my listen of the boxed set of Borodin orchestral work, the 'light music' pieces often played by Rob Cowan etc, Classic FM and Radio 2's Friday Might Is Music Night, most enjoyable while I'm today stuck in the house myself doing accounts and ignoring the Grand Prix race. I will get out into the garden soon.

Petite Suite
Nocturne for String Orch (arr. Sargent)
Prince Igor: Overture and Polovtsian Dances
In The Steppes of Central Asia
Mlada

I'm intrigued by the popularity of the Nocturne, a beautiful arrangement of the third movement of Borodin's 2nd String Quartet, and whether Borodin himself wrote an orchestral arrangement - the Malcolm Sargent arrangement seems to feature in many available recordings. I also have a Neville Marriner arrangement on an Academy of St Martin's-in-the-Field album.

Edit: added so as not to interrupt the Mahler threadlet  

Reading the extensive notes in the Borodin boxed set, it's clear that  I've also been listening to Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov!

They both edited and revised Symphony No 2, with a contribution also from Balakirev. Mlada and the Prince Igor music were unfinished by Borodin and much was orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov.

Glazunov reconstructed and orchestrated Symphony No 3, and the Prince Igor Overture, and he orchestrated the Petite Suite, from two piano works (he added on Borodin's Scherzo in A flat as the last piece).

That hasn't detracted from my enjoyment of all this Russian 'light' music, and I'm still intrigued about who first orchestrated the Nocturne.