Sir, - Michael Dervan was curmudgeonly in his review of RTÉ's recent festival of music by the Second Viennese School (Arts, February 19th) - a matter of some surprise in view of his repeated criticism of RTÉ for hitherto neglecting the more radical works of the 20th century, such as those by Schoenberg, Webern and Berg. Curiously enough, when he did strike a more positive note concerning the public's interest in this repertoire as reflected by the encouraging audience numbers, he was being very selective: there was a paltry turn-out for the Saturday night concert in the National Concert Hall.
Put-down references to the talks accompanying the concerts, such as "glib assertions of strongly held prejudices", were themselves glib and surely out of order (though I do appreciate that some might see in Mr Dervan's comment a case of the pot calling the kettle black). In any case, what is a phrase like that supposed to mean here, specifically? We gather that the critic strongly disagrees with what was said, but there is no indication of precisely what was said.
Mr Dervan was particularly ungenerous in his comments about the Frederick May work performed by Tom Erik Lie and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra under Proinnsías Ó Duinn on the Saturday evening. It was surely an imaginative stroke (as well as providing some relief for the uninitiated) to include May's Songs from Prison.
Admittedly, they did sound more like Butterworth than Berg (though none the worse for that), but the text of the piece - poems by Ernst Toller and Eric Stadlen - created a definite link with the "progressive" forces in Austro-German cultural and political life in the first decades of the 20th century (with perhaps a nod towards the struggles of Irish men and women in the same period as well?) And the piece itself was delightfully performed, well worth a hearing.
Though Webern's Im Sommerwind and Schoenberg's Nottorno, included in Sunday night's concert by the NSO conducted by Gerhard Markson, may be "atypical" works, they do help to establish the context out of which the atonal works of these composers later evolved, and this is something the programmers wanted to present. - Yours, etc.,
TONY WILLIAMS,
Ashbrook,
Howth Road,
Dublin 3.