POP/ROCK - July 5, 1991

McCartney’s Counterpunch: Paul McCartney is miffed at critical reviews of his first classical work. He wrote a letter to the Guardian in London, defending his classical composition, the “Liverpool Oratorio,” performed at his hometown’s cathedral last weekend. “I fear that there is a danger of misleading your readers with some of the remarks made by your critics,” the ex-Beatle said in the letter published Thursday. “Happily, history shows that many good pieces of music were not liked by the critics of the time so I am content to point out the aforementioned errors and let people judge for themselves the merits of the work.” The oratorio will be performed in London on Sunday.