Endowments, once a rude word because of the length of time the cash had to sit idle before it was worth anything useful, are now the buzz in the arts as a hedge against recession. The London Symphony Orchestra has just launched its own with an extraordinary gesture from the band’s 81-year-old former principal conductor Colin Davis. He has expressed his love for the orchestra with which he has been associated for half a century by digging deep into his own pocket for “a significant amount of money”, the LSO, says, to set the ball rolling towards a £1m target.

Meanwhile, more help in the way of influential support may be on the way. I gather an All Party Parliamentary Group on Classical Music is about to be set up with the aim of becoming an “interface between British orchestras’ on and off-stage activities, the wider classical music industry, including broadcasters and the recording industry, and key decision makers and opinion formers”. Whatever that means, it can’t be bad, and it has the support of the Association of British Orchestras. The chairman is to be the Conservative MP Stephen O’Brien who, as well as being shadow health minister, is pretty nifty on the ivories and sees himself as a promising conductor, too, though he probably won’t be troubling Sir Colin’s reputation…