THE PROMS
SIR.—Mr. Pirouet asks me a question to which I hope you will allow me to reply. 'Would I', he asks, 'criticise an anthology of poetry after reading 75 per
cent, of it?' The answer is 'Yes' and if Mr. Pirouet can find any reviewer who read 75 per cent. of the Oxford Book of English Verse before reviewing it I will give £1,000 to the Institute of Mental Defectives. Mr. Pirouet, searching for an excuse for the neglect of Wagner at the Proms, now produces a third and astonishing effort. It is that the greatest master of the orchestra in the history of music was not an orchestral composer because his music was mainly devoted to opera and music drama. The strain of producing this made him forget that a whole evening of the proms is devoted to the music of Sullivan, who survives as a composer of comic opera and 'The Lost Chord'.
Mr. Pirouet wisely refrains from any comment on the neglect of Handel at the Proms. Today's news- papers record the visit to England of the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra. Amongst the sights they are anxious to see is Handel's grave in Westminster Abbey. England, Handel's adopted country, is the only country in the West in which they could not hear any of his music. As an act of contrition Mr. Glock should accompany the Russians to the grave and take his friend Mr. Pirouet with him.—Yours faith- fully.
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