From complaint letters addressed to the New York Philharmonic and subsequent responses, stored in the orchestra’s archive. The letters are dated from 1952–1953. Dimitri Mitropoulos was the music director of the Philharmonic from 1949 to 1958. Barbara Haws, the Philharmonic’s archivist and historian for thirty-four years, who launched the online database, retired in August.

letter: Do you sincerely believe that you have a right to impose your personal whims from week to week upon an eager, music-wise public? What possible justification is there for such trash as that horrible Berg opus, a whole evening of Columbus,…