Ramon Khalona wrote of Hugh Canning's preference for Rattle over
Barenboim:

>I would never be counted as a Barenboim enthusiast (in fact, I was
>secretly hoping that he would be chosen in Berlin so that Chicago could
>find a better leader), but the last sentence above is simply not true.
>Barenboim's repertoire, particularly in the Germanic repertoire, is much
>broader than Rattle's and to say that Rattle is "without question superior"
>can only be justified as a case of acute anglophilia.

You see, there we go again.  It seems you cannot praise Rattle and be
British without having your motives questioned and it's getting very
tiresome indeed.  Conceive of the possibility that Canning actually
believes what he says for sound musical reasons and is expressing an
opinion to which he is as entitled as anyone.

Tony Duggan,  England.
My (developing) Mahler recordings survey is at:
http://www.musicweb.force9.co.uk/music/Mahler/index.html