19 APRIL 2008, Page 26

Nothing sacred

Sir: How depressing — an attempt by the BBC to give sacred choral music a significant airing on television, torn to shreds by one of the country’s leading choral directors (Arts, 12 April). What I found most intriguing was Peter Phillips’s proposition that ‘the ideal television history of classical music will be expensive, and it will have to include a lot of straight talking about technical musical matters’. ‘Ideal’ for whom, one wonders? Sacred Music may not have had a lasting effect on Mr Phillips, but fortunately he does not speak for many other viewers who, in my experience at least, are very happy to see such a programme making an appearance at last — even with its flaws.

Tim Ranford

Oxford