Elijah Ho, in an interview with Ara Guzelimian, touched upon the recent controversy about the violinist Isaac Stern. Here’s what came back:

‘All I can say is that in my experience of him, Mr. Stern was the single most tireless advocate of music, in general, and young artists, specifically, that I’ve ever experienced. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for a young musician who asked his help or advice. I think you don’t have to look very far for an astonishing number of accomplished artists who he mentored and advocated for in his life.

‘I’ll tell you one little story that was not meant to have ever been witnessed. In a back hallway at Carnegie Hall, I chanced upon him in intense conversation with a young violinist at one of the chamber music workshops that he ran at Carnegie Hall. He was extremely frustrated that this young man was being held back in his potential by what he felt was a very poor instrument. Mr. Stern had brought one of his own violins to lend to the young man for the next six months, so that the young man could see what was possible with a much more responsive, higher-quality instrument.

‘The only reason I ever became aware of this incident was because I stumbled into it. It was completely out of sight. The young man was a good but not astoundingly great violinist, and he looked flabbergasted that Isaac Stern was handing him one of his own violins to live with for the next six months. Anybody in any profession who wields authority and power – and Mr. Stern certainly held both – can always be second-guessed. The measure of any of our lives is the good that we do. By any standard, the extraordinary good that Isaac Stern did is boundless.’

Read the full interview here.

She was the youngest-ever finalist in the Tchaikovsky competition and she’s known back home as the First Lady’ of the Dutch violin tradition.

But time stops for no-one and Emmy Verhey, 65, has announced she’s retiring next year.

She has played concertos with outstanding conductors and made 55 recordings.

Avi Avital (mandolin) with Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord) at the Bristol Proms.

Only music can do that.

Last night’s performance of Norma at Holland Park ended with a First World War remembrance as the nation (and the park) turned out its lights.

It’s John Denver’s pad in Aspen, Colorado. Asking price is $10.6 million. The singer died in a place crash in 1995.

Clever. Really clever.

… and writes a book about it.

Ari L. Goldman, the former Times religion correspondent, has seen the light in several ways. Among other things, he has taken up the cello after a quarter-century lapse and started playing in a A Late Starters Orchestra.

So he wrote a book about it. So it goes.

For those who think critics just sit on their A-flats and carp, here’s one who doesn’t.

Our friend Lawrence Johnson, founder of the Classical Review sites in Bsoston Chicago, South Florida and New York, has spent much of the past year putting together an initiative that will promote performances of American music.

The American Music Project will launch with a Chicago Q Ensemble concert on October 5, featuring works by Charles Ives, David Diamond and Irving Fine, alongside the AMP’s first commission, a piano quintet by Amy Wurtz with the composer as soloist.

‘If, for example, somebody wants to put on a festival of American string quartets, or a cycle of American symphonies, we would provide a check to underwrite some of it,’ says Johnson.

No idea where the money’s coming from, but it’s a necessary initiative and it has cost Larry the greater part of a year’s work.

Three cheers, please, for that music critic.

More information here.

The musicians of the Metropolitan Orchestra have agreed to observe radio and social media silence while their negotiators are hammering out a deal with a retreating Peter Gelb.

The self-restraint, admirable as it is, does not mean musicians can’t talk about their craft. Principal trombone Demian Austin reminisces in this fascinating video portrait how all of his instrumental teachers were conditioned by vocal sound.

Laura Mvula, the stunning British singer, had a classical upbringing in Birmingham and used to play in a  string trio. On her new album, out next week, she offers unashamed and unamplified orchestral backing from Holland’s Metropole Orkest.

On the second track, Make Me Lovely, there is 1:42 of pure orchestral sound before she begins to sing. How rare is that?

Catch an exclusive preview here.

Want to hear more Laura? Click here.

Anthony Theodore Vance, 76, is being tried in South Australia, without the benefit of a jury. He is accused of tampering with three primary school girls between the years 2003 and 2008. Grim details here.

The Rotterdam Philharmonic has an extraordinarily versatile bass trombone, called Ben Van Dijk. Aside from the low stuff he does in the orchestra, he plays flamenco guitar to virtuoso level – and does both simultaneously on a new Lorca CD. Watch, and wonder.