Tonight, the retiring music director of the Israel Philharmonic took all the players and staff to a farewell dinner at what is said to be his favourite restaurant in Herzliya.

Not too hot?

In the latest of my DG videos, I look at the trajectory of Furtwängler’s career.

Siegfried Mauser is finally on his way to jail for multiple sexual offences against job applicants and colleagues.

But nobody seems to have told the board of the Akademie der schönen Künste.

They are preparing a Festschrift to be published for the criminal’s 65th birthday next month. Are they out of their mortar board minds?

Read here.

UPDATE: Among the luminaries who have contributed to this celelbration of a sex-pest are the leading German (male) composers Rihm, Hiller, Reimann, Trojahn, Widmann, Zender and Lachenmann.

The editors are Borchmeyer, Dieter / Popp, Susanne / Steinbeck, Wolfram

The German music establishment is still protecting one of its own.