I find the sound of most harpsichord recordings--not only Landowska's-- to be very fatiguing to the ear, So up close, in your face, that one can sympathize with Beecham's description of the harpsichord as the sound of two skeletons copulating on a tin roof. I recently had occasion to visit a store in Chagrin Fall, OH, that sold harpsichords and older (antique?) pianos and listened to several of them being played by store personnel. The sounds were delicious -- appropriately loud for the room and plenty of air around the notes. A lovely delicate, plangent sound that was engratiating not grating. Is the problem perhaps in the way the instrument is being recorded? To get maximum signal to noise ratio, it seems they just about stick the microphones into the instrument. How about pulling back and getting a natural room ambience effect? And then not playing the recording at ear splitting level. But I think if room ambience were captured better, there would little need to crank up the dial. It seems to me that many/most modern piano recordings, esp. since the digital age, have that too-close clangy sound. The best piano recordings were and are made by Connoisseur Society where you get a close sound that somehow has air mixed with it to give a realistic perspective and full round tone that clearly defines the instrument. I really recommend all the Ivan Moravec recordings made in the 60s and 70s and any others of that era including the extraordinary Ali Akbar Khan recordings of ragas on the sarod. They show that the ART of recording has not advanced since then. A final observation: I wonder whether today's instruments -- especially Steinways -- are more percussive and "brilliant" than the previous generation of instruments. I have found myself somewhat disappointed by recent soloists with the Cleveland orchestra, in terms of piano sound. They all sound glassy, percussive and top heavily brilliant. Now I wonder if they are at the mercy of the piano. My recordings of great pianists of the past show them to be capable of legato effects and mellow sounds where the music demands. (Horowitz's super-clarity is the exception -- he always had his piano specially tuned for that spiky effect, I am told, and he was sufficiently different from the others to stand out as such in his piano sound.) A little haze and blend is sometimes very effective. The mellow sounds of Solomon or Lipatti can't be blamed on the failings of recording techniques of the time. Is this me or is it Memorex? Comments? Eric Kisch