Critical Disagreements Over L.A. and Music

Once again I must respond to Mark Swed’s tired rhetoric. This time, he has displayed not only his usual disdain for L.A.-based classical music enthusiasts’ tastes, but also his tremendous lack of business acumen (“L.A. Could Take a Lesson From Salzburg,” Sept. 4). In his dreams, Mr. Swed would have the L.A. Philharmonic become as adventuresome in its programming as Gerard Mortier has made the Salzburg Festival over the last several years. Some arguments:

1) Mr. Swed seems to forget a salient point with regard to the Salzburg Festival: It is just that, a season festival, lasting just over one month. The L.A. Philharmonic has a “winter” season that lasts from September till May, tours for a month or more if it has the funding, and then continues all summer long at the Bowl. A bit different from a five-week festival.

2) The Salzburg Festival has a cache that Los Angeles never will. Indeed, Mr. Swed admits that himself when he ponders where else one could get performances by the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras (arguably the two greatest symphony orchestras in the world) on the same day. Needless to say, these “stars” of the Salzburg Festival can take full credit for its sterling reputation and sold-out box office. Mr. Swed is indeed living in a dream world if he believes that the L.A. Philharmonic, for all its strengths, could outperform either of these two venerable institutions, either on stage or at the box office.

3) Mr. Swed accuses the L.A. Philharmonic and L.A. Opera of being led around by the nose by letter writers to the Calendar section. These same letter writers are the ones who buy tickets for performances of these local organizations. At the same time, Mr. Swed acknowledges the donation of $6 million to the Salzburg Festival by one Alberto Vilar to produce new operas. If L.A. had such a patron to donate $6 million for one month’s worth of concerts, does Mr. Swed really think the Philharmonic would refuse the gift if the money were earmarked to produce concerts devoted entirely to the music of the Classical and Romantic eras? You said it yourself, Mr. Swed, just not in so many words: Money talks!

4) Location, location, location. Just try to fill the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for a single performance of the L.A. Philharmonic. I don’t think there are enough people on any given night who have the patience to brave the traffic for an hour or more to hear a concert in beautiful downtown Los Angeles. Salzburg on the other hand, is . . . Salzburg.

True, the new Disney Hall will be an automatic draw for a couple of years or so (I think Mr. Swed overstates the case when he suggests the “world’s eyes will be on Los Angeles”) but I still maintain that the L.A. Philharmonic won’t sustain an audience whose tastes in programming it ignores. Yes, even now I can hear Mr. Swed’s same old refrain--”Mozart is old hat . . . Magic Flute just an old ‘relic’ . . . Program the works of Ligeti, Glass, Xenakis, Takemitsu and make them listen to it! That’ll teach ‘em!” Sorry, Swed, it just doesn’t work that way. Come to think of it, let’s put Swed out to pasture, not Mozart!

MARK J. MARGOLIS

Newport Beach