Birmingham’s hall strikes the right chord | Letters

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