I spent a lovely evening at the Romanian Cultural Institute's Enescu Society on Thursday. They have a series of concerts in the L-shaped salon of their beautiful ambassadorial house in Belgrave Square, all of which tend to feature the work of Georges Enescu. It's a wonderful way to listen to music and highly recommended.

There's been a groundswell of outrage against the planned closure of the Victoria & Albert Museum's world-famous musical instrument collection, especially as the gallery is to be refurbished to display fashion instead. Sign of the times, say most. Here's the Guardian's editorial take on it, today.

The Grauniad makes a lot of sense, and it does indeed seem sad that the public will be denied the chance to see some of the most beautiful instruments ever created. But I have one little caveat to add. There is no sight in a museum that breaks my heart more than that of a Stradivarius violin hanging up behind glass, unplayed.

After there were queues round the block, reputedly, at the Roundhouse the other week for the Reverb concerts, I've been wondering just how much of a difference it makes if you are allowed to take your drink into the auditorium...

Do you think audiences should be allowed to take drinks into classical concerts? I've set up a poll on my old blog site (which has an inbuilt widgety thing that makes it easier there than here) so that you can give your opinion. Please pop over to it here and you'll find the poll at the top of the sidebar on the left. Voting is open for a week, finishing at 1am on 11 February. You can only vote once. Thanks for your feedback, and I await the results with interest!

Makes you think there's something in astrology after all: two of the greatest violinists who ever lived had the same birthday, and it is today, 2 February. Felicitations to our beloved Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962) and Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987).

In the arts, half a million of anything is a lot. A few months ago our own LPO discovered that its Mr-Nice-Guy finance director had been siphoning off lashings of lolly for his family home. [UPDATE, THURSDAY 4 FEB: LPO wins high court judgment of £2.3 million against him] And now it is nothing less than the mighty Salzburg Festival. My blogging colleague Intermezzo has the story here: holy Mozart balls!

[UPDATE: 8 Feb, more about Salzburg, from The Independent...it is getting positively Wagnerian!]

He's back, and I've been writing about him. Here's the piece, from today's Independent. The first concert is tonight and if you can't get a return you can sneak into the RFH's Clore Ballroom and see a live streaming. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/daniel-barenboim-how-the-maestro-made-classical-music-the-hottest-ticket-in-town-1882250.html