The Salzburg Scene

When Mark Swed compares L.A. to Salzburg, he raises important points about sustaining a healthy musical life here that the leaders of our major institutions need to think about (“L.A. Could Take a Lesson From Salzburg,” Sept. 4).

How long can we keep a great conductor such as Esa-Pekka Salonen when most of his and the Philharmonic’s really important performances have to be given out of town because the local leadership is afraid of scheduling them here? How is the L.A. Opera supposed to thrive when its only concession to living nervous systems is to tack “Billy Budd” onto the end of its season?

But if we really want large audiences for new and innovative things, we’ve got to integrate music strongly into our educational system. Then it’d be natural to have the sort of vibrant musical scene that places such as Britain and Finland developed after bringing music actively to their people.

STEPHEN MERRITT

Granada Hills

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I was very pleased to read Mark Swed’s review of Philip Glass’ new symphony, as I am a great admirer of the composer’s music (“Glass Gives Salzburg a Millennial Masterpiece,” Aug. 31).

I’m also a great admirer of Esa-Pekka Salonen, who brings out the best in our world-class L.A. Philharmonic. I hope that Salonen, who brings a great deal of contemporary music to the Music Center, will feature some of Glass’ music.

I’m nearly 76 years old and have been going to opera and symphony since I was 4. I’ll always love the great masters--Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, etc.--but there’s room for Philip Glass at the Philharmonic also.

ROSALIE H. ROTH

Tujunga

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Drat! Here I was thinking that the music department had finally gotten wise to Swed and sent him packing, since we had not seen his byline for a few weeks. But no such luck. And to add insult to injury, he managed to wangle a trip to Vienna, no less.

But his Aug. 31 review is the last straw. I never though we could read that Philip Glass had written something “grander” than Beethoven’s Ninth! Mama mia! Oy vay!

ROSLYN SMITH

Valley Village