Just in: Sudden death of controversial manager

We have just been informed that Franz Xaver Ohnesorg died suddenly last night at the age of 75. He was preparing for a farewell concert at the Ruhr Piano Festival in ten days time.

Ohnesorg was a highly energetic, often abrasive executive whose career coups included running Carnegie Hall and the Berlin Philharmonic. He walked out on both jobs, and still bounced back.

As young manager at the Munich Philharmonic he hired Sergiu Celibidache as music director. Next, he put the Cologne Philharmonie on the map. Hired by Isaac Stern to run Carnegie Hall, he fell out with virtually everyone in the building before phoning in his resignation from a cab on the way to Kennedy Airport.

He flew to Berlin to look after the Philharmonic Orchestra in the transition years from Claudio Abbado to Simon Rattle. He departed pretty much overnight in 2005 to be artistic director of the Ruhr Piano Festival.

Ohnesorg had detractors but my key memory is his sleepless dedication to the job in hand. When I left him once at 1 am in Cologne, he was going straight back to work.