Letter: In and out of tune on London orchestras

Sir: The Independent has persistently misrepresented the Arts Council's policy on London orchestras. For a long time you talked as if Sir Leonard Hoffmann were personally going to decide which orchestra was to be funded on the South Bank, when in fact he is to chair a committee of professionals with hands-on experience of orchestral playing and management, specially set up by the Arts Council for this purpose.

Now Bryan Appleyard announces in your pages that the Arts Council is in the process of transferring money from orchestras to dance, which is quite untrue. The overall music budget will remain unaltered by the changes on the London orchestral scene.

What the Arts Council is doing in London is concentrating its resources in an attempt to raise standards. This has been advocated by every inquiry there has been into the London orchestral scene over the last 30 years. You may not agree with it, but you might report the situation accurately.

Yours faithfully,

BRYAN MAGEE

Wolfson College, Oxford

The writer is chairman of the Music Advisory Panel, Arts Council.