I don't have any other Balakirev recordings, but maybe one of these days I'll take a look at the Sonata...
Heh, about the 1590?
Thank you for your kind comments, all. Yeah, this wasn't and wasn't supposed to be an absolutely perfect recording; it was just for a conservatory screening tape, so all I was thinking while doing it was "Just get it good enough...". One of these days I might try to put together a real solid recording of this piece and see how it turns out, but that's definitely not what this is.