Many thanks are extended to Douglas Henderson for his lengthy review
of the Ballet Mecanique performance in Lowell MA.  I listened to it
via Webcast, so I'm able to comment on one aspect of his review:

> The balance was totally wrong from the audience listening point of
> view.  Perhaps when transmitted as a broadcast recording it was
> better, since the pianos (each miked individually) can be 'turned up
> louder', and therefore be able to compete with the accompaniment of
> the drums, xylophones and other devices which clearly dominated the
> sound of the performance.

What I listened to sounded very murky, with only the bells and
sirens really making themselves heard.  I wasn't sure whether this
was the performance itself, or a result of trouble with the mikeing
or the Web cast compression: at 28 kbits/sec, there are unfortunately
a _lot_ of audible artifacts.  Mr. Lehrman's introductory presentation
had the unmistakable "Donald Duck underwater" sound of excessive bit
compression.  I can't properly imagine what the actual performance
sounded like.  Now, at least, I have some idea, albeit an admittedly
biased one.

The audience sounds, applause especially, were exceedingly strange
and mechanical in sound.  I wonder if Antheil would have approved
of *that*?

regards from Toronto,

Colin Hinz