My appetite is returning, so the virus is abating. Just a question of multiple boxes of Kleenex for a while.

I embarked on the latest instalment of Sigiswald Kuijken's Bach cantata series (Volume 9). I am now a fan of the series (and of the music). The instrumental contributions are usually excellent, and the vocal contributions variable, but usually good. One complication is Kuijken's claimed "discovery" of Leipzig pitch at A=465 Hz, versus Dresden pitch at A=415 Hz. This seems to be based on organ tunings. For instruments this is no great problem, of course -- they either tune higher or lower, or transpose. But voices can sound a bit desperate at A=465, with the bass, Jan Van der Crabben often sounding more like a basso castrato, and the tenor, Christoph Genz, sounding even weedier than usual; no Heldentenor, he. What with Marco Vitale's "Roman pitch" of A=392, and Kuijken's "Leipzig pitch" of A=465, those who claimed to possess "perfect pitch" (whatever that was supposed to be) must be having a hard time of it.