Letter: Two-star review

Kenneth Walton's review of the Argerich/Goerner recital on Sunday at the Usher Hall (15 August) was a typically uncharitable assessment of a tremendous concert.

His most significant criticism seemed to focus on Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances being "just partially short on full-blooded passion", but in the hall's renowned acoustic, the crescendos were thunderous, as was the applause which greeted the pianists at the conclusion; and two encores at the end of the recital left no doubt what the packed house thought of it.

Do I detect the hint of a refined sneer in the reference to "this highly popular recital"? We of the hoi polloi may not recognise a quotation from Rachmaninov's First Symphony, but we know what we like, and the customer is (it is said) always right.

I award your review two stars, Mr Walton.

Dave Stone

McLaren Road

Edinburgh