The Glass Harmonica.
Thomas Bloch.
Naxos records.

This is a great introduction to the exquisite Glass Harmonica. Naxos once again enlarges our listening pleasure by allowing such gifted musician/composers as Thomas Bloch a wider audience than other, more recondite labels have afforded him. This instrument, invented by Benjamin Franklin, and taken seriously by such greats as Mozart and Beethoven, is only now coming into its own again. Bloch is an integral part of that rebirth. Delicate, eerie, rumored to drive the listener mad, or to attract ghosts, the sound of the Glass Harmonica hovers at the very edges of hearing: a clean, celestial tone. You will never forget it once you hear its distictive sound. Liner notes give the instrument’s fascinating history. Bloch himself attempts (along with such great post-moderns such as John Cage) to create a future for the Glass Harmonica with his “Sancta Maria” and does an extraordinary job. The price, too, for this CD is extraordinary. What a bargain!