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