Tim Mahon mentioned Laura Lombardini Sirmen, a classical-era composer. Close to ten years ago, I acquired a Cala disc of six string quartets by Sirmen. I played it a few times, but it just kept sounding worse: much too simple and repetitive. It's possible she wrote other works of higher quality, but my Schwann Opus only shows the Cala; I'm surprised it's still in print and also listed at CDNOW. She's not a composer and I have no idea what her personal preferences are, but I'm listening right now to Susan Sheppard's baroque cello recording of Bach's Cello Suites on Metronome; I hope it sounds better on my primary audio system. It's hard to write a posting without mentioning a recording. Don Satz [log in to unmask]