Begging to Differ

Times music critic Mark Swed shows scant regard for the musical tastes of Los Angeles’ classical music lovers (“Debating the Philharmonic and Faith,” May 30).

Indeed, to prefer Beethoven and Brahms, or any of the great masters who have stood the test of time, to the music of Schnittke, Messiaen or Ligeti, is seen as a severe failing on our part.

Once, at one of the usually splendid free Sunday afternoon concerts at the Bing Theater of the L.A. County Museum of Art, we sat dutifully, trying to find something musical in the dissonant sawing and scraping that was going on. For one piece, a bizarre water-bubble machine was employed, making incomprehensible sounds. A little girl, about 4 years old, seated just in front of us, unconsciously held her hands over her ears. We had witnessed a completely unprejudiced opinion. The music was no good.

SAM WOODS, Los Angeles

*

If Swed thinks Hollywood has the “corner market on face-lifts and cigars,” he needs to spend some up-close time backstage at the opera. Is it so hard to accept that serious talent can also make serious money? Or should film composers turn in their batons for an honorable job, perhaps as an underpaid armchair-composer in residence at The Times?

Get over it, Mr. Swed, and allow innovation a little breathing room and the rest of us to enjoy the performance.

WESLEY C. HOUGH, Los Angeles

*

Composer David Newman is in good company. Wasn’t it Mark Swed who recently chided violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter for wasting her talent on a year of Beethoven violin sonatas? And Ludwig didn’t even write film music. One wonders if Swed is missing the bigger picture.

CLAUDIA PARDUCCI, Santa Monica