Taking note

In his discussion of audience manners in classical concerts (4 March), Kenneth Walton says that "without audiences, the performing arts world would simply not exist".

But it is surely more plausible and more illuminating to say the very opposite: without the performing artists, audiences would not exist. As Charles Rosen, the author of some of the most important books written on classical music, has pointed out on more than one occasion: "The music that survives is the music that musicians want to play. They perform it until it finds an audience".

VLAD VEXLER

Unthank Road

Norwich