Some concert hall or performing institution somewhere should try to persuade Maurizio Pollini to become its artistic director, for this great Italian pianist has demonstrated a knack for inspired programming through Carnegie Hall's Perspectives series.
Indeed, another of the complaints of those early-music professionals several years ago was that economic pressures in New York are such that large audiences -- and thus, large, often inappropriate halls -- are needed for any ambitious performing institution to succeed.
If the better performing institution is too robust, it may be unlikely that improvement will occur in the poorer performing institution.
At major performing institutions attitudes toward playing from memory have opened up.
By the late 19th century, performing institutions in Britain were prospering, and significant composers like Elgar and Vaughan Williams had emerged.
But excellent recordings keep coming out from a variety of sources: in some cases the artists or performing institutions themselves.
But with smaller, independent labels and, increasingly, performing institutions themselves picking up the slack, CDs and DVDs continue to pour in, many of them of the highest quality.
"Whilst Beethoven, Mozart and Tchaikovsky are relevant to all of us today, it is vital that performing institutions like the N.H.S.O. also foster and build an understanding of the new".
For all one hears about the classical music world being a museum culture, there is an alternative musical world in New York, just outside the spotlight focused on the big performing institutions.
Meanwhile, the Russell Group, a consortium of UCL, Cardiff, and 22 other large universities, said the REF's results justified concentrating limited funds into the best performing institutions.
"Some hard choices may be needed here," the panel acknowledges, "including a review of international commitments … and accepting that funding may concentrate in the best performing institutions".
