Letter: 'Oxford lacks a decent concert hall: how wonderful one named after Lalandi would be'

Nicholas Kenyon recalls how Lina Lalandi brought Olivier Messiaen and his wife, Yvonne Loriod to the Oxford English Bach festival in 1967. Not only did Loriod bring the Catalogue d'Oiseaux to perfection for those of us who were in the audience at "a half-empty Oxford Playhouse", Messiaen also provided a commentary of precision and beauty.

That by the end of the 1960s Oxford had in effect lost the festival to London could be very largely attributed to the city's limited performance spaces. Oxford still lacks a decent concert hall: potential donors please note how wonderful one named after Lalandi would be.