Brian Blackwell writes: >Now HIP has made its way into the Classical and Romantic eras - in short, >the standard orchestral repertoire. For many reasons, I believe they'll >remain largely an addendum here ... I hope so! My biggest HIP disappointment was Gardiner's HIP Verdi Requiem. The big, earth-shattering bass drum thwacks hardly sounded. My mother could make more noise beating a rug on a clothesline. John Smyth