Following a spate of negative responses in the JC, I have posted some final thoughts on its op-ed page on what I believe to be the historical importance of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Auschwitz opera, The Passenger.

It is unfortunate that  English National Opera has scheduled several performances for the nights of Jewish holy days, depriving the work of a significant part of its natural constituency. Next time, they should check a multicultural diary.

Delighted to see on Guy Damann’s tweets that Dame Janet Baker has received a lifetime award from Gramophone magazine.

During the Lebrecht Interview this summer, she broke into a huge grin when I mentioned her nickname – ‘Dame Granite’ – and cheerfully acknowledged that she thought it her duty to come into work on the first day of rehearsal knowing not just her own part but everyone else’s by heart. She was the rock on which the opera world could always depend.

I am so thrilled that her lifetime record has been so warmly  recognised.

You can listen to the interview here.

Swedish poet Tomas Transtroemer has won the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature. He is the eighth Swede in 110 years to walk off with the award, which is judged by the Swedish Academy. Local patriotism? Perish the thought. Sweden is plainly a nation of literary geniuses.

This is Transtroemer at the piano from poetry dispatch. And here’s him reading Madrigal.

Now I’d better start reading him, too.

Here’s the first account I have received from a member of the audience at Valentina Lisitsa’s recital at Perivale church last night:

There were fans from all points of the compass who had made the journey to West London – It was standing room only by start time. Val’s playing was stupendous. The colour and range that she coaxed from the piano were unbelievable – the gradual fading of crescendi persisting as gorgeous pianissimo movements entered the consciousness – sounds that I never could imagine coming from just one instrument. Fingers caressing the keys before exploding into a mesmerising flurry of movement and amazing sound. My heart was racing and I was only a spectator!
By the end there was a buzz of excitement and joy as the audience crowded round to meet and greet a truly great pianist who deserves to grace all the great stages of the music world.

Val’s on a train to Paris at the moment, but expect to hear more….

In Paris this week working on a forthcoming BBC documentary about Barbara, I was interviewing Barbara’s manager Charley Marouani (who has never talked about her before) when he mentioned a name I had only ever heard before in a literary context.

Canetti.

Elias? I prompted, thinking of the author of Auto-da-fe.

No, Nissim, known as Jacques, his brother. ‘Without Jacques,’ said Charley, ‘there would be no French chanson’.

Jacques Canetti, who died in 1990, had a club called les Trois Baudets, where the likes of Jacques Brel, Georges Brassens, Serge Gainsbourg, Anne Sylvestre and many others got their first date. He went on the become head of productions at Polydor and Philips, fostering not just the singers but their entire genre, Barbara included.

Unknown outside France, he wrote a memoir On cherche jeune homme aimant la musique, 1978, Editions Calmann-Lévy, Paris, that I have just ordered.

Charley Marouani, who is 85, is also about to publish his memoirs, Une Vie en Coulisses (Fayard). Theirs was a respectful métier.

The next music director of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra will be …. drum roll … Philippe Jordan.

He takes over in 2013 from Fabio Luisi, who is far too busy to continue (for reasons reported elsewhere).

It’s a good call for Vienna. Philippe, 36, son of the Geneva conductor Armin Jordan, is displaying great sensitivity and skill as music director of the Paris Opéra. Watch him on video here.

Who knows? He might even get to be next head at the Met.

(with Nicolas Joel, Napoleonic director of Paris Opéra. Cut out and substitute picture of Peter Gelb.)

An extraordinary story from Ashdod in Israel, where the Andalusian Orchestra has cancelled a soloist, Francoise Atlan (below), under pressure from Orthodox religious groups, who refuse to listen to the female voice.

According to rabbinic sources, the female singing voice is an erotic indulgence. Religious men are forbidden to listen.

The orchestra, which plays traditional sephardic music, will, in future, only offer a female singer as an alternate, non-subscription option.

Here’s the story in Haaretz.

Bert Jansch, the fast-fingered Scottish folk musician who lit up my college years, is no more. He was 67 and stricken with cancer.

Here’s the Guardian’s obit. And here’s video of Angie, his most celebrated track.

The Danish director, who made an offensive comment indicating Nazi sympathies at the Cannes Film Festival, issued the following statement today after being questioned by police:

Today at 2 pm I was questioned by the Police of North Zealand in connection with charges made by the prosecution of Grasse in France from August 2011 regarding a possible violation of prohibition in French law against justification of war crimes. The investigation covers comments made during the press conference in Cannes in May 2011. Due to these serious accusations I have realized that I do not possess the skills to express myself unequivocally and I have therefore decided from this day forth to refrain from all public statements and interviews.

Lars von Trier

Avedøre, 5. October 2011

I had an interesting head-to-head yesterday on WQXR with Anne Midgette of the Washington Post and Jesse Rosen of the Symphony League as to whether maestros can overcome past conduct and evolve into a more user-friendly species.

The conversation arose out of the Roberto Minczuk and Mark Gorenstein issues raised on this site, but it has far wider implications. My own view is that, unlike dinosaurs, conductors can respond to fast-changing circumstances and develop a more contemporary model.

Hear the conversation here.

I have just received news of the death of the English composer David Bedford. He was 74.

His biggest impact was with the Mike Oldfield album that launched the Virgin label in 1973.  Bedford orchestrated and conducted the richer-sounding album that followed two years later.

He also worked with Elvis Costello, Keith Moon and Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

But he was an assiduous composer of modernist and post-modern works, many of them underappreciated.

The Royal Opera House has announced the death of Alexander Grant.

One on Frederick Ashton’s favourite leads, he went on to head the National Ballet of Canada.

RIP

seen here with Nadia Nerina