L.A. FESTIVAL

While most of the local media (especially The Times) have been very supportive of our city’s bid for world-class arts status, the Los Angeles Festival, it is absolutely baffling that Martin Bernheimer reviewed the opening music event, John Cage’s Musicircus (“A Musicircus Kicks Off Festival Honors for Cage,” Sept. 7).

Bernheimer’s criticism of music from centuries past is certainly astute, but he is known throughout the music community for his antagonism to new musical ideas.

A critic’s job is to objectively judge a work on its own merits. Bernheimer judged Musicircus by his own well-known bias against all contemporary music. A critic who ridicules not just a single work but its entire genre does a disservice to the artist, the reader and the publication.

SCOTT FRASER

Los Angeles