FEEDBACK

I was among those on my feet cheering and applauding at Esa-Pekka Salonen’s final concert. I liked the attention your article gave to the love Esa-Pekka received and richly deserves. So it is a bit incongruous to take issue with your call for a ban on booing [“Cry of the Boobirds,” April 26].

Mark Swed writes that booing closes off discussion. Applause can do so equally. Don’t many people feel inhibited from expressing disapproval upon hearing gushing praise?

Schoenberg recommended no applause or booing at his private society for performance to allow for both the strong and weak aspects of a piece to be appreciated.

It is true that booing can express simply a prejudice against something new, but is not the booing mainly the expression of the closed mind and not the cause of the closed mind?

I was informed by your article of a high level of booing I was unaware of. Maybe in the context of so much ugliness it is just a matter of getting the ignorant to learn manners.

Burt Goldstein

Santa Monica