Jos Janssen on Janos's discovery of the youth of the Berlin Philharmonic's
musicians:

>Just for the record: the "great makeover" actually started under the
>reign of Claudio Abbado.

I've just seen a 2002 documentary about the democratic process through
which the orchestra elected Simon Rattle to the conductor's post.  It
included clips of the contenders, and of Abbado who, despite his claim
to feeling fine, looked anything but, compared with the last time I saw
him on television.  He referred in passing to having recovered from an
illness which some Googling found was stomach cancer.  All this was news
to me, so I thought it worth mentioning for the benefit of the similarly
less well-informed.  He also said there had been quite a turnover in the
orchestra's personnel during his tenure.

Some Berlin concertgoers were asked to express their preference for their
new conductor.  One woman, unversed in the hallowed traditions of the
British honours system, was keen that the man for the job should be Sir
Rattle.  Well said - I prefer it to the real thing.

Richard Pennycuick