Sm,—Mr. C. W. Orr's letter is typical of the complacent
attitude charac- terising most Press notices of Dr. Fu rtwangler's recent Beethoven festival in London. Referring to Furtwangler and Bruno Walter, he writes: " It may well be that these distinguished conductors imagine that England is still das Land ohne Musik, and that we are unacquainted with the masterpieces of Beethoven and Mozart." He even quotes Mr. Martin Cooper's still more condescending remark about the recent performances: " Of course, they play Beethoven's symphonies very well, but. . ." They do, indeed, and I fear that for the most part we certainly are unacquainted with the masterpieces of Beethoven.
What conductor and orchestra in London can give performances of the Beethoven symphonies to compare with those of Dr. Furtwangler and the Vienna Philharmonic ? Mr. Barbirolli and the Halle Orchestra are rarely in London, and Sir Thomas Beecham is well known to abstain from too frequent playing of Beethoven. Indeed, for one of the few really fine recent performances, that of the Fifth Symphony by Karajan and the Philharmonic Orchestra in April, the hall was more than half empty. How rare it is to hear a truly great performance of Beethoven's works, a thing to which every great master is entitled. Let us then not sneer at the few chances we are given of hearing the true Beethoven.—
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