The haunting, ethereal tone of the glass armonica, which was invented by Ben Franklin in 1761, was said to drive its players insane. On Cristal, Dennis James risks madness as he surveys three centuries of music composed for Franklin's armonica, and two other glass instruments called the seraphim and the cristal baschet. Most of the selections date from the armonica's first period of popularity, which started in the late 1700s and ended in the 1830s, and include compositions by Hasse, Apell, Scmittbauer, a composer who also made armonicas, and Mozart, who composed the Adagio and Rondo for armonica just weeks before he died. James is joined on the Mozart piece by the Emerson String Quartet, who also play on Garry Eister's Quintet for Glass and Strings, one of the few 20th century pieces written for armonica. Cristal was produced by Linda Rondstadt, who also sings a duet with Ruth Ann Swenson on a lovely arrangement of Faurй's Pavane. Ronstadt wisely avoids trying to turn this into a pop crossover and instead lets the fragile beauty of the music speak for itself. --Michael Simmons