Pierre Boulez with drew from Thursday night’s Cleveland concert and is in doubt for the weekend. The medical problem has been made public: it’s the consequence of an opthalmic operation.

We wish him better.

Rachel Barton Pine is on tour. Three dates with the Krakow Academy in Poland.

What to do in-between? She played Metallica, AC/DC and Led Zeppelin in a Nowa Huta prison.

Cat Power has called off a Tel Aviv gig at 48 hours’ notice, citing political ‘confusions’.

Yep, she’s that clear about it. More here.

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s change in US policy, the Musicians Union in Britain has called on the government to change the rules by which airlines can refuse to carry instruments, or put them in the hold.

‘For a working musician, the fee can mean the difference between a concert or gig making or losing money – and that’s without even counting the potential cost of a damaged instrument, said General Secretary John Smith.

No word yet from Ryanair. No printable word, that is.

The Hot Club Iserlohn, marking its 60th anniversary in Darmstadt, claims to be the longest-running jazz club in the land. Bill Coleman once gigged there.

I find the claim pointless and hard to believe. Berlin had a huge jazz scene right up to 1939 and resumed pretty much on the dot in 1945. There must surely be one club that has been running ever since… And to ignore the pre-war history seems somehow distortive. Read on here.

The conductor Manfred Honeck, once a member of the dinosaurian Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, has not stopped breaking moulds since he became music director in Pittsburgh. The first US music director to volunteer a pay cut before his players felt the pinch, Honeck is now casting around for new soloists by soliciting video submissions from unknown instrumentalists. Anyone who can play can apply.

The winners will be chosen at a live audience audition, with worldwide voting running in tandem on Youtube.

Players in the Pittsburgh orchestra tell me they think it’s a terrific idea.

The only conditions are that you have to be over 18, and without an agent. The PSO is not paying commissions.

Here’s Manfred, on video, explaining the scheme.

Giangiacomo Guelfi has died in Bolzano, aged 87.

A pupil of Tito Ruffo, he performed all over Western Europe and, in the US, at the Met and Chicago Lyric. He was probably the loudest male singer of his time, always with volume to spare.

Here’s how he sounded: