As to Stenhammar (composer of my favorite piece, so I do want to weigh in however belatedly...) his 6 string quartets (the 4th of which -is- that favorite piece *g*) form a wonderful cycle covering his entire career, from the somewhat derivative early two to the increasingly characteristic, folksong-influenced (and, at least in the fourth quartet, quoting), though certainly also influenced-by-Beethoven, second pair, through the fifth and sixth (which I will have to admit I do not know so well, still, though the sixth was the first of them I ever heard and the one that got me hooked... when I heard it again, about a month ago, there was no question in my mind why, either!) I regard Stenhammar as uneven (I still cannot get into his 2nd piano concerto, which is too bombastic for my personal tastes, for example) (well, most composers I know, including Beethoven, my favorite, are uneven...- so- more uneven!) but at his best, outstanding, and cannot think of him as 2nd rank (unless the term loses its usual derogatory meaning and 1st rank is reserved, as it sometimes is, for a -very- select few); but this is a quite subjective thought and must be taken as such... Still, when I heard the Yggdrasil Quartet play his 3rd quartet on Swedish P2 (from a 1998 live concert) (www.sr.se/p2) (over Realaudio) a few months ago, I was in 7th heaven. They played it, I thought, even better than the Gotland (now Zetterqvist) Quartet does on the Caprice CD I have of the work (coupled with the aforesaid 4th, probably nla now, I hope some good group records it again sometime because these pieces really deserve to be available) and ... it was wonderful. Subjective again, but there you are. Sorry. I have to respect a composer who can hit emotional chords that hard, that early in his life (op. 18, age 29 or so.) If Segerstam would record more Pettersson... but according to Cauthen's page, that seems beyond unlikely. What he does with the 3rd & 15th makes Francis and Ruzicka's efforts in them sound underpowered. A broadcast of his conducting the 4th symphony - likewise. (Unless BIS gets permission to release that, Francis on cpo will, I guess, have to do, but it really doesn't.) &c. -Eric Schissel (opinionated but given to changing at less than a moment's notice.)