Mariss Jansons has pulled out of two Mahler concerts in Munich this month with what is described as an “akute Erkältungserkrankung”, or a very bad cold. He had previously cancelled a week in Amsterdam.

Jansons, 68, is due to conduct the New Year’s Day Concert in Vienna. He told a news agency that he’s preparing intensively for it. I’m guessing the Vienna Phil will have a dep lined up, just in case.

He was cremated today at Bournemouth Cemetery. I was unable to be there because I was filming a tribute for a programme that the BBC will put out next month.

I am very glad they are doing so. The BBC treated Ken as tainted goods for 30 years – and this, after he changed the way the world saw the lives of great composers. They owe him more than ne film can acknowledge, and I hear there are plans afoot to revive some of his legendary biodocs.

If you haven’t already, do read this tribute by his son, Alex.

The Australian conductor will give up her two jobs as director of Hamburg Opera and general music director of the city, in 2015.

Young, who is 50, told the Vienna newspaper Der Standard that she needs more free time to spend with her music. It may be that she has her eyes on other vacancies coming up around that time – notably, Covent Garden.

In a Lebrecht Interview last year, she talked of her concerns for ageing parents back hone and of the umbilical cord that will ultimately take her back to Australia. She’s in Vienna to conduct Strauss’s Daphne at the Staatsoper.