Sixty years ago, railway worker Roy Harrison was among the founder members of the Derby County Orchestra. As a young man he held down a job as a fitter and millwright at the Locomotive Works.

Later, he requalified as a music teacher.

He carried on playing the flute into his 80s despite suffering from pulmonary fibrosis probably contracted at his first job. Roy credited his ability to play with lungs scarred by asbestos  inhalation to good diaphragm technique.

Moving story here.

Er, no they don’t.

The brief and oddly unsatisfying era of sexual contortions by (mostly) female soloists is mercifully over.

No major-label classical video – opera excepted – is likely to require the new age ratings.

The composer of many of the films of Claude Chabrol has died in the Ardèche, aged 85.

Pierre Jansen had his early works premiered at Darmstadt, but from 1960 became the trusted collaborator of Chabrol and other leading film-makers.

His celebrated scores for Les Biches and Une Femme Infidèle brought atonality to the big screen.

The Salzburg Festival has issued a family photo of its newest Nestle conductor competition winner, Lorenzo Viotti.

He is the son of the much-lamented Swiss conductor, Marcello Viotti, who died ten years ago at the age of 5o.

This s one of the last pictures of the Viotti family before Marcello’s death.

l-r: Marina is today a mezzo-soprano, Alessando a horn player, Milena is 3rd horn at Bavarian Opera, Lorenzo Viotti is one from the right with his mother.

Photo: Bayerischer Rundfunk/Georg Thum

The Manchester-born composer Roger Smalley, who has died in Sydney at 72, started out as Stockhausen’s assistant, an enthusiastic purveyor of all things electronic.

Then he moved to Australia, taught at Perth, and wrote a symphony and piano concerto.  His Variations on a Theme of Chopin is described as ‘a milestone in Australian repertoire for solo piano’. In 2011 Roger was appointed to the Order of Australia (AM).

May he rest in peace.