Holiday Music

Herbert Glass (On the Record, Dec. 10) must think “this time of year” is simply a religious season. So, if you are tired of “Messiah,” try Faure’s Requiem. Glass probably has not read those buttons some people are wearing that say, “Jesus is the reason for the season.” A Mass for the dead, no matter how beautiful, is a rather bizarre recommendation.

If you’ve had too much Handel, try Bach--The Magnificat is magnificent--and there are cantatas relevant to the season galore.

One could try Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” or Berlioz’s “L’Enfance du Christ,” and there is much else relevant to Jesus. But a Dies Irae, relevant as it might be for the dark of mid-winter, hardly seems apropos to this season.

HAROLD SAMUEL SPEAR

Pasadena