After 11 hours of secret voting the orchestra have failed to select a new chief to replace Simon Rattle.

Sir Simon Rattle is proving a very hard act to follow as the Berlin Philharmonic remain at a stalemate in selecting its new principal conductor. The orchestra’s 123 members met on Monday in south-west Berlin to decide on the appointment of arguably the most prestigious conducting position in the world. However after 11 hours of voting, accompanied by a media storm of faked reports, rumours and misleading tweets (all since deleted) which hinted at various outcomes, the orchestra ultimately failed to come to a decision. Christian Thielemann, Riccardo Chailly, Gustavo Dudamel and Andris Nelsons were among the names of world-class conductors in the running for the job, but none reportedly received a clear majority of votes.

Peter Riegelbauer from the Board of the Berlin Philharmonic said that another “conclave” to decide on the appointment would be “held within a year”, although some cultural commentators have speculated that one possible outcome of the voting process was that a clear successor was selected, but declined the position. Simon Rattle leaves the orchestra in 2018 to become the new director of the London...