Letter: LSO can blow its own trumpet

Sir: In 'Customers enjoy a 'reign of terror' ' (3 October), David Lister states 'in 1990 . . . the London Symphony Orchestra . . . was an artistic also-ran, in deep financial difficulties'.

Artistically, in 1990, the LSO was in fine fettle: a year earlier it was the first-ever recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society's Orchestral Award, with the citation 'for excellence in programming and playing standards'.

By 1990 the LSO had already had enormous artistic successes with its festivals of Mahler, Bernstein, Gershwin, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and The Flight of the Firebird, with conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Mstislav Rostropovich and Leonard Bernstein.

Financially, the orchestra was in very good shape by 1990. The accumulated deficit caused by the financial problems of the early 1980s had been wiped out in full by 1987.

Yours faithfully,

CLIVE GILLINSON

Managing Director

London Symphony Orchestra

London, EC2