What do you think, Bryn?

Janacek Sinfonietta here - Ancerl/CPO which arrived last week. I've always treasured the Kubelik BRSO recording, but this is, if anything, even more special.

Absolutely ! The Ancerl/CPO (the old Supraphon recording) has always been the guv'nor performance. Fearless. Janacek is Blatman.

Good as it was that Mackerras re-introduced the Viola d'amore to the score, that old Ancerl is the one to return to again and again. Same goes for the Glagolitic Mass. If only Ancerl had had access to Wingfield's restored version of the score.

NS the Frescobaldi Capriccios, first on Stephan Hussong's accordion, then on a very old and rickety organ by John Butt. Particularly hair-raising are the Capriccio 'di Durezze' and the one that's 'cromatico con ligature al contrario' where all the suspensions resolve in the wrong direction. It sounds like the organ hasn't been maintained since the Civil War or so.

On the train today I spun:

David Tudor's Neural Synthesis no.6, very disconcerting to listen to on headphones because it's recorded binaurally - some of the electronic sounds seemed to be coming from inside the head of my neighbour. But confirmation that (referring back to another thread) I find his music very beautiful and original. Neural Synthesis by the way is more a technical setup than a "piece" - there are four recordings of it on the double CD, two of which are binaural, and I once also saw him play it live (one of the most memorable concerts of my life, indeed) which was different again. The setup consisted of numbers of small homemade-looking boxes connected by a spaghetti of cables, looking more like the remains of an explosion in an electronic-components shop than anything else...



... which Tudor would adjust every now and again. It was difficult indeed to hear the connection between what he was doing physically and the sounds that issued from the loudspeakers, but it held my fascination for a whole evening.

AND

Zelenka's oratorio "Sub olea pacis...", a ceremonial rather than dramatic kind of piece but containing some beautiful arias with constantly-varying instrumentation - one with two flutes and two recorders, plus some X-rated chalumeau action. Unfortunately the only complete recording



is bordering on inadequate in the vocal department. The tenor in particular isn't at all equal to the passagework. But it's all worth hearing anyway, and when a better recording comes along I'll be first in the queue.

The organ is onstage at Hertz Hall on the University of California, Berkeley, campus.

It's called "the Italian organ" in the O'Neill collection. It "was constructed in the middle of the eighteenth century by an unknown builder for a church near Verona. The earliest known repairs were made in 1936. After further repairs were made in 1969 by Bartolomeo Fermentelli, the organ was acquired by the University of California... The manual has a compass of four octaves, C to c''', and the pedal from C to a. All stops drawn on the manual play automatically on the pedal. The action is mechanical. The wind may be pumped by two rope-and-pulley hand pulls.

Do you want a stop list? Or should I stop listing?

the CD is on Harmonia Mundi: HMU 907178

Who has my copy of this?



I wanted to listen to it because I'm preparing La Chute d'Icare at the moment but I've obviously lent it to someone and it's jolly well vanished. Ahem. If someone here has my copy of it can they PM me please? Thank you.