SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA'S CONCERT

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 112, 14 May 1930, Page 18

SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA'S CONCERT

(To the Editor.) I Sir, —Will; you allow us to join issue; in the controversy between Mr. L. D. Austin and "The Post's" musical correspondent? j While analogy is not logic, neither is equivocation becoming to the musical critic of an influential daily. He states that no one sentence can- be taken from the context to stand by itself as a definite expression of opinion. It would ap-pear-that your critic's Concept of logic is as limited as his understanding of musical fundamentals. Granted that a solitary sentence is circumscribed in its application to the general sense of the context, yet in music, as in logic, the points to be stressed are presented in ordered sequence; only thus is their relation'to the whole made clear and intelligible. As Mr. Austin points out, the most delightful quality in your correspondent's article is obscurity, made doubly noticeable by his painfully self-evident endeavour to grasp Mendelssohn's abiding place in the history of art; ability to do so involves a knowledge' of the intrinsic spirit of music, which is a quality as rare as it is divine. To pass sentence on greatness is not our aim; we leave* this to the discernment of genius. In conclusion, may we recommend to your critic's taste and judgment the "andante" movement of Mendelssohn's Trio in C minor (Op. 66)? —We are, etc., ' . NEWELL G. MANN, ROY L. WATSON. . 13th May. ["The Post's" critic writes: "I am sorry that I have made myself obscure to some. I can quote instances, if the correspondents desire, of congratulations received from several who attended the concert, and whose names stand high in local musical circles. These include- at least two of the committee of the Wellington Symphony Orchestra. Obscurity is often a relative term. As great music appeals for the' most part to the maturer'minds, I have written for them.]