ATTENTION MR. MUNCH

My dear Mr. Munch:

I was one among the audience at the first Sanders Theatre concert last evening. After a year away from Cambridge, it was a delight to come back to our Harvard concerts.

It is about the program that I want to write you: the Beethoven Fourth, Berlioz' "Royal Runt and Storm," and the Brahms First. Mr. Munch, this choice is surely a failure either of nerve or of imagination. Indeed, the guests have been fed beef and potatoes with a touch of cola slaw on the side. For this nourishing fare we must be grateful. Yet surely one can design a more stimulating musical diet: something earlier than Beethoven, something later than Brahms. Perhaps you are as weary of playing items of standard repertory as I am of hearing them at so many concerts.

This is the 72nd season of the Boston Symphony. Surely by now the orchestra must feel secure enough in its renown to venture beyond the limits of the conventional concert program. Bartok, Stravinsky, Milhaud. Berg, Britten, Piston: shall we have to wait two more generations before they appear on a concert program as something more than rare curiosa? And Corelli, Vivaldi. Buxtehude, Palestrina, Monteverdi: shall we hear them only in recording or at rare chamber concerts.

I think I speak for many members of your Harvard audience when I urge you to explore a few more musical bypaths in constructing programs for us. Beef, potatoes, and cole slaw leave us somewhat sudden. Respectfully yours   Jorome S. Bruner   Professor of Psychology