23 FEBRUARY 1974, Page 5

Music to vote by

Sir: Angus Maude writes in 'A Spectators Notebook (February 9) that when "the shadows of doom darken and hope seems futile" the best recourse is to play the 'Dies irae' from the Bernstein recording of the Verdi Requiem.

This may be so, but, personally, when I contemplate the possibility of Mr Heath being re-elected I find Beecham's record of Delius's 'On hearing the first cuckoo in spring' more appropriate.

Peter Starkey 6 Dunsfold House, Kingsnympton Park, Kingston Hill, Surrey.