Almost everyone who knew him has memories of Ernest Fleischmann hitting the roof. He had a hair-trigger temper and could turn from sunny smile to screaming rage in an instant. I saw him blow his top on many occasion and my email inbox is full of people telling me how he fell out with them yet, scanning my internal hard drive, I cannot recall one occasion when Ernest and I had a serious falling out.

On the contrary, in deference to our common German-Jewish ancestry, we almost fell over one another in competition to be polite and after-you. Four years ago, when I reported that Esa-Pekka Salonen was planning to leave Los Angeles for the Philharmonia in London (where his wife used to be a player and with which he was sentimentally attached), Ernest wrote me a very gentle email, wondering if I mightn’t consider publishing a correction since, to the very best of his personal knowledge, Esa-Pekka was staying put in LA.

I checked back on my sources and they assured me that Salonen was, as I had written, heading for London. I replied to Ernest, standing my ground, and we agreed to differ. When, some weeks later, the Salonen move to London was announced I realised that he had raised the objection more from heart than from head. Ernest, though no longer running the Philharmonic, remained a fervent fan and an incorrigible local patriot. He couldn’t bear to see LA lose an asset. He took every little thing to heart, and that’s what we loved about him.

It was a treat to read today’s Guardian obituary written by Alan Rich and illustrated with a photograph (not online) by Betty Freeman, both sadly no longer alive. I first met Alan at a Sunday brunch series at Betty’s where he would introduce a living composer and his works – on that occasion, George Perle. Ernest, who instigated the series and took me there, loved nothing better than to engage people with music they had never heard before. Betty had the most discriminating ears I ever met and Alan was an immaculate presenter. Of such characters is great music made.  

Almost everyone who knew him has memories of Ernest Fleischmann hitting the roof. He had a hair-trigger temper and could turn from sunny smile to screaming rage in an instant. I saw him blow his top on many occasion and my email inbox is full of people telling me how he fell out with them yet, scanning my internal hard drive, I cannot recall one occasion when Ernest and I had a serious falling out.

On the contrary, in deference to our common German-Jewish ancestry, we almost fell over one another in competition to be polite and after-you. Four years ago, when I reported that Esa-Pekka Salonen was planning to leave Los Angeles for the Philharmonia in London (where his wife used to be a player and with which he was sentimentally attached), Ernest wrote me a very gentle email, wondering if I mightn’t consider publishing a correction since, to the very best of his personal knowledge, Esa-Pekka was staying put in LA.

I checked back on my sources and they assured me that Salonen was, as I had written, heading for London. I replied to Ernest, standing my ground, and we agreed to differ. When, some weeks later, the Salonen move to London was announced I realised that he had raised the objection more from heart than from head. Ernest, though no longer running the Philharmonic, remained a fervent fan and an incorrigible local patriot. He couldn’t bear to see LA lose an asset. He took every little thing to heart, and that’s what we loved about him.

It was a treat to read today’s Guardian obituary written by Alan Rich and illustrated with a photograph (not online) by Betty Freeman, both sadly no longer alive. I first met Alan at a Sunday brunch series at Betty’s where he would introduce a living composer and his works – on that occasion, George Perle. Ernest, who instigated the series and took me there, loved nothing better than to engage people with music they had never heard before. Betty had the most discriminating ears I ever met and Alan was an immaculate presenter. Of such characters is great music made.  

Regime change at the leading classical record label stepped up a gear yesterday when Michael Lang, head of Deutsche Grammophon, was ordered to report to his parent company’s German HQ instead of the Universal New York office. This is a small but significant shift.

Lang, an American, was installed at DG as the executive arm of Chris Roberts, president of Universal Classics and Jazz, whose writ reduced the famous label from standard-bearer of classical performance to ambulance chaser of crossover trash. Roberts is leaving the job in October and his structure is being demolished daily beneath him.

Many expected Lang to depart with his master and commander, but the quiet former jazz producer has been given one big chance to put right all that has gone wrong over 15 years. It’s a huge task, but the restoration of geographic primacy will be widely cheered – and not just by the surviving Mutters and Thielemanns on the roster.

One of the world’s leading conductors told me the other day of the hostility he faced from Roberts & Co. ‘I felt they hated conductors. Anything I suggested was greeted with a sigh and a frown. I was a time-waster for them. We were never going to achieve anything together.’

That deadly ambience has changed with the return of Costa Pilavachi in a presiding A&R role. Pilavachi was removed as head of Decca when Roberts decided to demolish the London-based label. he went on to become head of EMI Classics, fell out with its hedge-fund owners and has now returned in a peacemaking role to revivify the Roberts wasteland. 

Much will need to be done before Deutsche Grammophon can regain its rightful historic position as pacemaker in the classical music industry, and Pilavachi has a long way to go before he gains the confidence of its devoted German staff. Many of them are avid readers of Slipped Disc, anxious to know what’s will hit them next.

Regime change at the leading classical record label stepped up a gear yesterday when Michael Lang, head of Deutsche Grammophon, was ordered to report to his parent company’s German HQ instead of the Universal New York office. This is a small but significant shift.

Lang, an American, was installed at DG as the executive arm of Chris Roberts, president of Universal Classics and Jazz, whose writ reduced the famous label from standard-bearer of classical performance to ambulance chaser of crossover trash. Roberts is leaving the job in October and his structure is being demolished daily beneath him.

Many expected Lang to depart with his master and commander, but the quiet former jazz producer has been given one big chance to put right all that has gone wrong over 15 years. It’s a huge task, but the restoration of geographic primacy will be widely cheered – and not just by the surviving Mutters and Thielemanns on the roster.

One of the world’s leading conductors told me the other day of the hostility he faced from Roberts & Co. ‘I felt they hated conductors. Anything I suggested was greeted with a sigh and a frown. I was a time-waster for them. We were never going to achieve anything together.’

That deadly ambience has changed with the return of Costa Pilavachi in a presiding A&R role. Pilavachi was removed as head of Decca when Roberts decided to demolish the London-based label. he went on to become head of EMI Classics, fell out with its hedge-fund owners and has now returned in a peacemaking role to revivify the Roberts wasteland. 

Much will need to be done before Deutsche Grammophon can regain its rightful historic position as pacemaker in the classical music industry, and Pilavachi has a long way to go before he gains the confidence of its devoted German staff. Many of them are avid readers of Slipped Disc, anxious to know what’s will hit them next.