Piano Competition: Few Votes for Critic

In his commentary on the Pasadena Rachmaninoff International Competition (“Competition of Pianists Ends on a Controversial Note,” April 8), Mark Swed seems to have missed the spirit of the last two weeks by only attending the Saturday night awards.

I witnessed a building excitement and enthusiasm as the rounds were completed and seen by the ever-increasing audience, which included proud homeowners who had “adopted” the contestants and their 10-hour-a-day practice sessions, smitten seniors who worked tirelessly to make all the arrangements, intent piano students who watched the virtuoso performances in awe and, finally, all of the rest of us who love classical music.

I refuse to let Swed’s cruel and cynical criticism ruin a unique gathering of music lovers and contestants in our town of Pasadena. Even if my favorites didn’t win, I will always remember their alternately feisty and romantic performances, and, above all, their earnestness.

If these pianists are a “dime a dozen,” as Swed claims, then I have great faith in the youth of the world and am thrilled there are so many of them.

BARBARA SHEINKOPF

Pasadena

It is unusual for me to go to a piano competition four times in a row, but after going to the Norton Simon Museum, where the competition started out--what a marvelous little museum--I got hooked, like many others. The audience swelled from 20-some people into thousands as the competition went on.

Swed could not possibly get hooked because he did not go to any of the concerts except the last one, which was basically an award ceremony and not a contest--most unusual for somebody who wants to review the competition as a whole.

TIBOR ZADA

Beverly Hills

Swed’s ignorant assertions that the competition was a “Russian enterprise” with a “predictable” (predetermined?) award, going to a “vulgar” Russian pianist whose previous collaboration with the “crude” Russian orchestra somehow influenced the outcome, are stunning in their audacity.

With one destructive swipe, he completely obliterates the American organizers and sponsors of the event, the city of Pasadena, the Norton Simon Museum and Jorge Mester and the Pasadena Symphony, as well as slandering every one of the 13 distinguished jurists (four of them Americans), and all of the other 29 contestants.

LAYNE NIELSON

Los Angeles

It was a challenging task to organize this competition, but the promoters should get applause for trying. I hope the event will find a permanent place here and not be deterred by such undeserved and cheap reviews from the L.A. Times.

FREDERICK R. ANDRESEN

Corona del Mar

The decision of the jurors at Friday night’s final installment of the Rachmaninoff competition to disqualify Italian pianist Alessio Cioni as a finalist was appalling. There is no evidence in their own guidelines for such action and such a punitive gesture seems contrary to the very beauty and spirit of the music of the beloved Rachmaninoff himself.

What seemed to be purely an effort to cut the monetary awards of the prizes resulted in a petty and unnecessary gesture by the jurors that simply and sadly puts the whole idea of classical musical competitions in the same kind of scandalous and distasteful category as figure skating.

BARBARA S. COHEN

Walnut

The Ince Legend

Some Hollywood legends never die, no matter how erroneous. Example: Walt Disney was frozen for thawing at a later date (he was cremated).

Now Peter Bogdanovich is attempting to make some hay with the ancient wheeze that Thomas Ince was killed in 1924 by William Randolph Hearst’s bullet (“Can Fiction Solve a Real Mystery?” by Kevin Maynard, April 10). Not so.

In 1924, my father, George H. Thomas, left his post as editor of the San Diego Sun for what turned out to be a short-lived job. He became the publicist for the studio magnate Thomas Ince. In his later years, my father was amused by the alleged scandalous happenings aboard Hearst’s yacht, and one day he told me what happened.

“Ince was a gourmand. He ate and ate, and one night he ate too much. His stomach burst, and that’s what killed him.”

The alleged shooting has been treated in film histories, novels and plays. I’m sure Peter’s movie will not be the last word on the subject. As the newspaper editor remarks in “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”: “This is the West. When the legend becomes a fact, print the legend.”

BOB THOMAS

Encino

Casting and Ethnicity

I can’t help but think that the anger over the casting of Alicia Nash in “A Beautiful Mind” (Saturday Letters, April 7) is much ado about nothing. To reduce the art of acting to the question of whether the casting was as politically correct as it could have been is to seriously undermine what great actors can accomplish.

Was there a similar “outrage” when the non-Indian Ben Kingsley earned an Oscar for his portrayal of Mahatma Gandhi in 1982? Did anyone feel slapped in the face when the Irish Liam Neeson and the English Ralph Fiennes were both (deservedly) nominated for Oscars for their respective performances in “Schindler’s List” (Schindler was Czech, by the way)?

I’m sure we all remember the horrible crime of casting the Texan Renee Zellweger as the British Bridget Jones (and let’s ignore the fact that she was nominated for an Oscar as well). And it strikes me as completely hilarious that not one person has raised the “issue” (if there is an issue at all) that Russell Crowe is Australian, while John Nash is not.

It’s at the point that I wouldn’t be surprised if someone were to complain that no one of Middle-Earth descent was cast in “The Lord of the Rings.”

Let’s not all be hypocrites and exploit a double standard for the sake of political correctness, agreed?

TAYLOR HUDSON

Laguna Niguel

Defending ‘Queer as Folk’

I was sorry to read Liz Smith’s characterization of Showtime’s “Queer as Folk” as an “awful TV venture,” while she lauded Cher’s belief that it does a disservice to gays (“Cher Continues to Astound,” April 8).

As a proud member of the gay community, I could not disagree more. I, and many of my gay friends, look forward to each new episode of this groundbreaking and wonderfully heartfelt series. At the same time, I find the critically acclaimed “Will and Grace” completely impossible to watch, the gay equivalent of “Amos and Andy”; but then, I would not be surprised to learn that this is the kind of “safe” and stereotypical gay fare that makes Smith comfortable.

RALPH MORRISON

Hollywood

Brant in the Spotlight

Bravo to Josef Woodard! His article about Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Henry Brant (“Space for More,” April 10) brought the essence of this exciting music to life. The all-too-modest Brant truly deserves the spotlight. I hope Los Angeles will experience his work at the soon-to-be-finished Walt Disney Concert Hall.

E. L. WALDOW

Beverly Hills

Fish Story

In his article “The Unusual Province of Canadian Films” (April 5), Wade Major asks, “What could be stranger than a movie narrated by a talking fish?”

How about a movie narrated by six talking fish?

Been there, done that, in Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life”--a $9-million movie still not yet in profit, according to Universal. How do they manage that? Incredible, isn’t it? Perhaps they use Arthur Andersen.

ERIC IDLE

Los Angeles