Demonstrations in New York and London were only to be expected for a maestro who has hitched his chariot to the anti-gay tsar, Vladimir Putin. Munich, where Gergiev is heading next after leaving the LSO with short notice, is meant to be a softer landing, a city that protects artists from unwarranted intrusion into their political connections. That’s how it has always been.

No longer, however. The junior partner in the city government, where the social democrats are the largest party, is the Green-Pink List alliance. The city provides much of the funding for Gergiev’s orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic. Expect awkward questions.

UPDATE: More warning signs. The Süddeutscher Zeitung headlines Gergiev as ‘Putin’s hero on the podium’.

Peter Pavlenskogo, who has previously protested on behalf of the Pussy Riot prisoners, told police that his action was a cry against the ‘apathy, indifference and political fatalism‘ of modern Russia. Doctors ruled him sane and he is being held in custody.

He may have time on his hands when the La Scala job is over at the end of next year, but this is one of the unlikelier career-moves for the award-laden international musician.

The proposal comes from Gideon Levy, a left-of-left commentator on the liberal daily, Haaretz, and, while not without merit, it serves chiefly to demonstrate how far the secular left in Israel has drifted apart from mainstream public opinion.

Barenboim, who holds both Israeli and Palestinian passports, would not, by our estimation, be acceptable as a figurehead president to 70 percent of Israeli society. Still, as Theodor Herzl said, if you really want it, it needn’t be a dream.

Read Levy here.

The axe has reached Clarion University in Pennsylvania. Read here.

Impossible? Believe.

Read.

They’re called The Really Terrible Orchestra of Westchester, and they have much to feel terrible about. Their youngest violinist, Maya Leggatt, was pushed under a train in an apparently motiveless crime. Watch here.

An attempt by two board members and two musicians to end the 13-month lockout ended on Friday with no progress on either side. The board members proposed a ‘reconciliation task force’, having previously shot down the mediation efforts of Senator George Mitchell. The musicians said the talks were going nowhere.

Outsiders now regard the Minnesota Orchestra as deceased. It may well take a new organisation to restore music to the stricken Midwest.

Get lucky. Get no closer to them than this.