i may be letting my hopes get wildly high, but after looking for nearly two years, it is just possible that i have finally found the exact recording of janacek's "a fairy tale" that i had been so beguiled by from the start. the first i had anything to do with the piece it was one i'd snatched off audiogalaxy, with scanty track information so that i neither know the name of the performers nor the recording from which it was taken. i've looked long and hard for it, and to this end have bought, so far, four recordings and downloaded countless other versions, but they were all not it. no, the ones i've got are either insipid and feet-dragging, or else mincingly rational, even-paced, not at all gripping, knowing. who cares about gravitas in something like that? now my unnamed performers, how different they sound! cello and piano matching passion for passion, full of immediacy, insurbodination, unpredictability, and delibracy. and at the height of your enthrallment it is all snatched away leaving you gasping at the manipulation.

i don't know if this is it: the clip i've heard is very short, but even if it isn't the same performancers, at least this one sounds right emotionally. so tomorrow i must make a trip to hmv.