FOR ITS MEMBERS' EARS

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Kenneth Hoffman ("Concerto Program at Kirkland," Oct. 17 Crimson) does Robert Portney a serious injustice in gratuitously assuming that Portney held a "cavalier attitude toward [the] audience." Instruments will fall out of tune, especially when it's very hot, and in my view Portney's decision to stop and tune in the cadenza (where a pause matters far less than in the body of the piece) showed not disdain for the audience, but consideration for its members' ears.

I also take issue with Hoffman's criticism that Portney's "hair-flicking, soul-stirring mannerisms" worked to the detriment of the performance. A virtuoso show-piece such as the Tchaikovsky needs to be played with a flourish (the age of the player is irrelevant); to demand that it be presented dispassionately is to miss to a large extent the point of the music. Jim Meadors '74