I agree with Kenneth Zammit Tabona (The Sunday Times, April 25) that the deaths of President John F. Kennedy and Pope John XXIII in 1963 could not have left Charles Camilleri unmoved.

Mr Zammit Tabona was referring to the composer's Andante Religioso, which was performed at the Charles Camilleri Memorial Concert by the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra at the Manoel Theatre last month.

In fact, recently I came across a letter written by Mro Camilleri in 1961 informing me that he had just written his work In Memoriam - Dun Karm for trumpet and strings on hearing of the death of our National Poet that year. According to his note on the original score it was performed at a chamber music concert in Toronto, Canada, on February 4, 1962.

So, as Mr Zammit Tabona stated, it is very unlikely that the Andante Religioso was inspired by the death of Dun Karm and not by that of the two world renowned personalities.

I wish to take this opportunity to thank Mro Camilleri's widow, Doris, for her painstaking efforts to retrieve the score of In Memoriam - Dun Karm which I hope will be performed by the Malta Philharmonic next year, the 50th anniversary of the death of our National Poet.