Sir – Last Saturday at The Sheldonian Theatre I enjoyed one of the best concerts of my life. The Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, gave a wonderful performance, and at the end I rose to my feet in appreciation.

Looking round I saw that nearly all of the Upper Gallery were also on their feet, as were many in the Lower Gallery.

However, I could not see a single person downstairs standing, even though the ovation lasted a long time.

I am puzzled by this. Are acoustics better higher up? Do all those downstairs have much higher standards, or is there a convention that forbids ovations there?

Or could it be that all of us upstairs had to struggle hard to get tickets, whereas tickets downstairs were available by invitation only? Incidentally, I did notice Christopher Gray downstairs remaining seated. Clearly, he has every right to do as he chooses, and so I shall be interested to see what he has to say in his review, assuming, that is, that he talks about the music, and not about the Literati, Glitterati and Celebrities he may have spotted.

Francis Josephs, Noke