16 APRIL 1983, Page 21

Song cycle

Sir: While sympathising with Jeffrey Ber- nard over his protracted hospitalisation, one may at least take vicarious pleasure in the refining influence that French music, on Radio 3, seems to have had. In particular it is gratifying to find him appreciative of a composer still under-estimated in this coun- try: Albert Roussel. However, it was not Roussel who was cut off in his prime by a bicycle accident (he lived in fact to a respec- table 68), but Ernest Chausson.

M. F. Cullis

County End, Bushey Heath, Hert fordshire