To the editor: Mark Swed’s assessment of a latest live performance by the Nationwide Symphony on the Hollywood Bowl is an illustration of the critic at his snarkiest (“The newly homeless National Symphony finds shelter at the Hollywood Bowl,” Aug. 20). I attended the identical live performance however had a totally totally different response. I need to confess that I’m not a extremely educated music critic, however I’ve been attending concert events on the Hollywood Bowl and elsewhere for greater than 70 years. As well as, I maintain a doctorate in greater training from the UCLA College of Schooling.
Swed describes the Bowl live performance as “unimaginative” and spends the majority of the rest of his assessment speaking about what the Nationwide Symphony ought to have performed slightly than speaking about what it really performed. This system included music by Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin and Antonín Dvořák. These are all excellent works that had been completely appreciated by me and numerous different members of the viewers.
Swed laments the selection of Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Aspect Story,” slightly than among the extra classical and much much less well-known works that Bernstein composed. The reality, nevertheless, is that Bernstein’s music for “West Aspect Story” and “Candide” is loved and appreciated by much more individuals than the intense classical items that Bernstein wrote throughout his in depth profession.
It’s extremely unlikely that the Bowl viewers would have had the identical appreciation and pleasure had the Nationwide Symphony performed Bernstein’s “Slava! A Political Overture,” “Three Meditations” from “MASS” or “Songfest.” As a substitute, Nationwide Symphony conductor Gianandrea Noseda introduced a program of far more well-known works that had been carried out excellently by a terrific orchestra.
Richard Seligman, Simi Valley
