MAURICE TUCHMAN’S VISION

Maurice Tuchman, Los Angeles County Museum of Art modern art curator, rears his ugly head again (“Of Lunches, Trends and Parties--Or How to Collect Modern Art,” by Elizabeth Venant, Feb. 3).

Diagnosis: Visiona Narrowsa --deadly curatorial disease.

Prognosis: Terminal.

CAROL QUINT Los Angeles MUTI MUTATION

Regarding Donna Perlmutter’s praise of Riccardo Muti and the change he has made in the sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra (“Muti--Man in Mid-Revolution,” Feb. 3).

As one who grew up in the East listening to the Toscanini Philharmonic, the Koussevitzky Boston, the Stokowski Philadelphia, and who was trained at the Curtis Institute and was (at 21) a member of the Stokowski Philadelphia Orchestra, permit me to comment.

The Stokowski Philadelphia’s character and passion gave the sound that distinguished it from all others. This sound, maintained to a major extent by Eugene Ormandy, lasted until the arrival of Muti.

The country is now filled with superb orchestras. They play marvelously, with accuracy and precision, and all sound alike. If one listens to FM stereo, for example, without knowing which orchestra is playing or with no familiarity of that particular recording, one cannot identify the orchestra.

In this respect, I must agree with Perlmutter--Muti has changed the sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra. It has lost its character!!!

JULES SEDER Studio City LIKE A CALENDAR (To the tune of “Like a Virgin”) I made it through the stereo ads

Somehow I made it through

Been wading through mindless pulp

To find the Book Review

The Letters Page--Is the Rage

Hilburn’s wit really gets upstaged

But I read it through

Yeah, I read it through

‘Cause I got nothing to do!

But read Calendar (Hey!)

For the very first time

Read the Cal-al-alender

Where pure slander

Is not a crime

Sheila’s fine--she’s so kind

Springsteen’s great

He’s God incarnate

But what’s really bad

Yeah, what makes me mad

Is that big Vegas ad!

In the Calendar

Almost every time!

In the Cal-al-al-endar

Filling my mind with useless slime LISA CANNON La Mirada