bob Draper wrote concerning Ravel's String Quartet: >I just wish that record companies would couple it with other Ravel >works rather than someone else's quartet. Recordings of Ravel's quartets coupled with other Ravel chamber works are fairly rare. Of course, the Debussy string quartet coupling is the traditional pairing, but most new recordings also offer a third quartet by a third composer. Actually, it has made sense to pair the two most popular string quartets from France composed in the early part of the century. The pairing likely sells very well, and those traditions are hard to break. The coupling I detest is a Rachmaninov 3rd piano concerto with a Liszt or Tchaikovsky piano concerto. I don't know why the companies seem to think that if you like the Rachmaninov, you must also go for Liszt or Tchaikovsky. Do they think that all Russian composers are alike, even from different time periods? I do like Mahler/Zemlinsky pairings like the one that Gardiner and von Otter put out about three years ago. Don Satz [log in to unmask]