MILO KANE,
Sir, - Permit me the rare pleasure of concurring with Kevin Myers's views, as expressed in his Diary of February 15th. Lyric FM is indeed a boon to Irish listeners and is to be complimented (chart shows excepted) for threading a way between the Scylla of the over familiar and the Charybdis of a rarefied approach. Erudition and informality combine in the better of its presenters and, to name but one, Eamonn Lawlor alone would be worth my entire broadcasting licence fee.
The points on exotic pronunciations are well made, though the rationality of Mr Myers's approach has limits. Across at the BBC Sancho Panza has lately been given a new boss called Don Quickshot. My preference still is to attempt what Cervantes would have said. I shall also continue to take "t" with Mozart and to start Wagner with a V.
There is a persistent custom, spread far beyond Lyric, to mispronounce the Latin word with which musicologists enumerate classical compositions. No mere option arises here, as might perhaps occur between Oxford and Cambridge usage. We do not visit the Oh-pera, nor undergo surgical oh-perations. The definitive statement on this matter was made in your columns some 50 years ago when Myles thundered: "One must not invoke great music as if calling a cat". - Yours, etc.
MILO KANE,
Bettyglen,
Raheny,
Dublin 5.