My friends and relations know that I think classical composers were grossly overpaid for doing very lttle work, and yet they keep on giving me tickets to Symphony Hall.

Last night there was nothing good on TV, so I reluctantly used one of those tickets. It was, as I had feared, mostly a disappointment. The concert started with Haydn's 'Surprise Symphony.' The only surprise was that Haydn got paid for writing one chord, surrounded 22 minutes of silence. Outrageous!

Ravel's 'Bolero' was almost as bad: twelve minutes of silence, followed by five minutes of music. he next piece, Wagner's 'Ride of the Walkyrie,' was pretty good from start to finish. I should have known that this was too good to last.

The last piece on the program was "'Pelude to the afternoon of a Faun', another example of big bucks paid for long stretches of silence. I get it that deer are not very loud, but Symphony Hall is not a forest. Writing music about animals that make no sound makes no logical sense.

I shall write letters to Mr. Haydn and Mr. Debussy.about their unforgivable chutzpah first thing tomorrow morning. Fortunately, I can get a good night's sleep first, as I live right next to a very quiet airport.

Mrs. Stoandeff

Paulh

11.11.19 Front Page

Back Issue Page