The Merrick first album arrived - the CD book has the words. It looks like a very indie package. The words are certainly strange - such a long distance from Inara's Invitation album. I listened to it twice through.

There was also the double CD of Berg which I listened to all the way through. It contains Op1 Piano Sonata, Op3 SQ and Op6 Three Orchestral Pieces. This made me look up Op5 - 4 pieces for clarinet and piano. The score is downloadable for free and there are plenty of performances on Youtube. I think I might raid this.

Tonight on Radio 3 is Ravel's La Valse and beforehand there was an interesting talk about it. Ravel had been thinking for several years about a waltz piece linked to Vienna and in 1911 he produced Valses nobles et sentimentales first for piano and then orchestrated which is also in the R3 programme. La Valse was written in 1919 after the end of the Hapsburgs. Ravel denied that the piece should be interpreted in terms of the rise and fall of Vienna. Some people think that this interpretation is valid nonetheless - there was always something decadent about the dance.