Tom-tom music
SIR: I enjoyed your story about Tom Lehrer and Magdalen College, Oxford (December issue). Tom Stevens told it to me himself at a Roman-history tutorial (I was at New College, but we were farmed out to Tom for Roman history).
According to him, Tom Lehrer agreed to play only after he had shamed him by relating a similar experience when he had persuaded another famous but initially reluctant pianist to perform on a previous convivial occasion.
‘After I had begged him to play,’ said Tom Stevens, ‘Mr Solomon [the famous pianist] finally agreed to do so.’ This was in the summer term of 1959, so the dates have got a bit mixed. Yours faithfully,
Sir Brian Unwin, Dorking, Surrey