ANDRE’S PASSION

In Martin Bernheimer’s review of the Andre Previn concert of Mozart and Britten (“Week 2: Ragged Mozart, but Brilliant Britten,” Oct. 19), Bernheimer had great praise for the Britten “Spring Symphony” and disdain for the Philharmonic audience’s proclivity to exit during music that is not instantly hummable.

This review is another chapter in our eloquent curmudgeon’s lonely crusade for modern music. His contention that Britten’s work “demands a certain degree of empathy and concentration of his audience” reaches new heights of outrage.

Going to the Philharmonic should not be work, but pleasure. The music either touches something enjoyable inside you or it doesn’t. No amount of concentration, or effort, is going to make me manufacture an empathy that I cannot truly feel for music that does not entertain me.

RICHARD R. McCURDY

Hollywood