... must TWO OF LONDON'S top violinists have switched jobs to mutual advantage: Ray mond Cohen, previously leader of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, has decided that he wants to devote his time to solo and recital work. Cohen's departure means a break for Alan Loveday, who takes over as RPO leader after many years as a solo performer. New Zealand-born Loveday, 38, has a number of ideas for the ...

... VICTORIAN ARCHITECTURE by Robert Furneaux Jordan. The author believes that comprehen sion of Victorian architecture must replace erudition; he compares Victorian England with the US to day, and describes in detail the style he calls self-assured, vulgar, uninhibited, beautiful and gro tesque. A Pelican Original published by Penguin Books on 24 November, 12s 6d PALLADIO by James S Ackerman. ...

... QUERELLE OF BREST by Jean Genet. First translation into Eng lish of Genet's least autobiographi cal novel, and the fourth of his books to be published over here by Anthony Blond, who waited for many years before he judged the climate was right for the writings of the poet of the evil of our times. bet in hsrest. tne seaport town of fogs and granite and lusty sailors, Genet's story is of Quen ...

... GOOD EHTrnG Well, if Mary MacCarthy can't do it, then nobody can. The aim of the exercise, I learned this week, is to make Fortnum's Fountain a literary rendezvous. Working hard at the venture: publisher Barley Alison, who deals with Miss MacCarthy's books at George Weidenfeld's. and critic John Gross. I can tell them that, whenever he's in town, J P Donleavy always has his tea at Fortnum's. ...

... music LEONARD BERNSTEIN, the first native American to direct the New York Philhar monic, who has just announced that in 1969 he will retire to devote his energies to compo sition, arrived in London last week to prepare for several television programmes, and a con cert at the Royal Festival Hall on 8 December. A time is arriving in my life, he says, when I must concentrate maximally on ...

... IHERTRE The revival of Frederick Lonsdale's 1927 comedy On Approval puts me in a spot. On one hand, I feel that re vivals of the plays of the teens and twenties, the Maugham- Coward belt, are very much to be desired. So much expert writing, so many playable parts should not merely be aired now and then by enter prising reps, but should -like Shakespeare be constantly paraded in the West End. ...

... Books are expensive abroad --especially when translated into English. So a useful economy for the traveller is to buy the most up-to-date British book on the country he is visiting before he goes. A recently published book has a great advantage over a classic which has been translated into English and made gener ally available in expensive tourist book shops. Books to travel witn can ne merely ...

... must AUSTRALIAN BARITONE Tom McDonnell was ecstatic: I must be the luckiest man alive! He was speaking about the contract he has just signed with the Sadler's Wells Opera Company. And pleased he may well be a year ago he was singing in the chorus of the Sutherland-Williamson Opera Company in Melbourne; then he came to London, was auditioned by the Wells, and three weeks ago, while waiting ...

... THBURE When historians of the I future look back on the '60s they will certainly regard these as years of outstanding theatrical performances. They may even pinpoint the '60s as the beginning of a complete overhaul and reappraisal of the theatre-- but we can only hope, not confirm on that score. We who are on top of it all can complain easily, especially about the commer cial theatre and its ...

... GM1ERIE5 The addition of a Titian and a Boucher to our permanent collection at the National Gal lery is sufficient reason for a special visit any week of the year. The former, named Allegory of Prudence, is a magnanimous gift from Mr David Koetser. Now it has been cleaned and reframed and is on view in the Board Room together with a few photographs and some in teresting documentary mater ial. ...

... music In 20 years I have never yet heard Wagner's Ring in English; now, I neither expect nor particularly want to. When the curtain rose on Das Rheingold at Covent Garden this week, a largely non- German-speaking public were committed to 16 hours of Teutonic philosophising in the original tongue, and an annual ritual which raises, in extreme form, the perennial operatic poser: language of the ...

... UHIUKIU The newly opened Wright Hepburn Gallery in the newly opened Halkin Arcade can be welcomed for several reasons. While the developers and the traffic between them press the pedestrian into ever narrower verges and auto matic collision courses, any where that is sheltered from the rain and the cars and where, within reason, one doesn't have to look where one is going, is a blissful ...