Birmingham’s hall strikes the right chord

Inside Birmingham Symphony Hall. ‘The whole bustling Broad Street area of Birmingham was transformed by the building of the conference centre and Symphony Hall,’ says Mark Hebert.
Photograph: Alamy

It’s not clear in what subject Professor Mike Bury holds his chair (Letters, 23 December), but if it’s history, he should know that London has been lacking a decent venue for symphonic music for as long as anyone can remember. This predates Simon Rattle, and the deficiencies of both the Festival Hall and the Barbican have been acknowledged by many leading musicians. One need not travel to Berlin, Paris, Tokyo or Boston to be aware of what a good hall sounds like. We lived in the West Midlands through the Rattle years. It is not an exaggeration to say that the whole bustling Broad Street area of Birmingham was transformed by the building of the conference centre and Symphony Hall. Georg Solti was so impressed on his first visit to the hall that he booked more dates on the spot. Birmingham rarely had top international ensembles visit before.
Mark Hebert
St Ives, Cambridgeshire

• Let’s have a new concert hall for London costed, pro bono, and then distribute the estimated sum for musical education in schools worldwide. Rattle et al want there to be audiences for the future, don’t they? Or are they all too interested in having others’ money spent on new temples in which to display their own magnificence?
Bob del Quiaro
London

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