Alex Renwick wrote: >Have we no people on the list who started with Russian composers.[?] It's funny; I'm so presently unattached to Russian composers that I forgot how much two meant to me at one time. In my previous article- length post (apologies after the fact:) I wrote (referring to my dad): >What did he think it meant that I used to stack four or five classical >records on the arm of my turntable each night before going to sleep? The records stacked on the spindle (not arm) of my record-player were from a 3-LP set of Tchaikovsky's string concertos. I remember the one that I most favored as well as the packaging (as many other seem to) and the fact the performers were the "Copenhagen String Quartet." Shortly thereafter I discovered Symphony #6 and I didn't even take it badly when my entire english class laughed when I chose "the Patetique" to accompany a reading of a poem--a class assignment. In subsequent years I liked Rachmaninoff but, as it coincided with graduate school--which precluded the pursuit of many non-academic things--I never dug down very deep, and over they years have remained "greatest hits"-familiar. I've never returned to the Russian composers because (in general) they possess too much fervor for me, there is too much fury and drama, and too much high e-string violin work. I don't reject that as aesthetically invalid, of course; it's just that it's not the right temp- eramental match for me anymore. So yet another question to come out of this fugue-like thread: can anyone recommend Russian composers that are sparse, slow, structured, and calm? That are more (aesthetically) "baroque" than "romantic"? I'd be surprised but pleased to hear of some. --Jayne Willingham