Norman Lebrecht writes:

>One of my greater gratifications is meeting conductors of the new
>generation and finding that most, if not all, of them have read The
>Maestro Myth and When the Music Stops (aka Who Killed Classical Music)
>and have resolved to avoid the misdeeds of their predecessors.

This little nugget of neo-Wagnerian hubris made me laugh hugely.
Whose tongue was further up whose cheek when these pure-living young
conductor-crusaders met our Critical John Knox?

Mr Lebrecht is indeed a marvellous ornament to the musical world.  Long may
he prosper.  However, his fiery conviction that personal behaviour - good
bad or indifferent - somehow affects the quality of artistic endeavour
deserves our derision.

Doubtless this sort of stuff sells books.  Still, perhaps he might do well
once in a while to remember Hamlet's words about which of us should 'scape
whipping, before allowing himself to be swept up on the hot currents exuded
by his own self-righteous bag of wind.

Christopher Webber,  Blackheath, London,  UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!"