I'd like yo raise an issue, many of you will have thoughts about.  The
other day I went to a piano recital By Christian Zimmerman.  The announced
program looked (for me) very inviting: Brahms, Klavierstuecke op 118,
Beethoven op 110 (which I hate), but after the intermission Scriabin, Ravel
and Godowski (Java suite) were promised.  It was the program after the
intermission, which prompted me to go to Rotterdam (I live in the Hague
20 km distance).  When I bought a program at the counter, I learned, that
Zimmerman was to replace the program after the intermission by Brahms's
3rd sonata, which made the whole program much too uniform to my taste, and
also I found Zimmerman's playing disappointing that evening.  I filed a
complaint with the concert direction, they were sorry (they should be!)
but, as they wrote me, when a famous musician like Zimmerman changes his
program on such a short notice, there is nothing we can do about it.  Now
I wonder, do the concert directions really have no power at all, apart from
never inviting the artist again? Any readers of this list with similar
experiences?

Peter Wisse