Daniel Beland asked if there were...

>...Other fans of Ustvolskaya on this list? If you have new recordings to
>suggest, please let me know...

I'm not sure if I'd qualify as a fan proper, as I find a lot of her music
bleak and stark and far out -- a reaction I also have about Gubaidulina's
work, who goes even farther.  I think I detect some humour or at least
playfulness amid Ustvolskaya's grimness, though I could be wrong.

So I think I speak for the more approachable end of her opus when I
endorse your enthusiasm about both the Grand Duet and the Octet.  I'm
also partial to her 'Composition #3 (Benedictus qui venit),' for flutes,
bassoons and piano, intense as all her works seem to be, and the very
dramatic 'Symphony #5 (Amen)' (London Musici, dir.  by Mark Stephenson.
Conifer 75605 51194 2).  This last item includes a Russian reciter of the
Lord's Prayer whose solemnity strikes me as so earnest with rage it borders
on the tongue-in-cheek.  No doubt it's just me.  If you know Veljo Tormis's
supplicating 'God Deliver us from War,' this more or less belongs in the
same ominous musical neighbourhood -- though the Tormis is more clearly
spine-chilling.

For piano, I'd recommend Ustvolskaya's Sonata #6 (David Arden, pf.
"Women of Note." Koch International Classics 3 7603 2 H1).  Also, I
find a few of her Twelve Preludes for piano (Marianne Schroeder, piano.
'Galina Ustvolskaya #2 ' (Hathut Art CD 6130) incredibly involving in
their simplicity -- a feature that seems to characterize all of her music.

Bert Bailey