That’s it, the rehearsals are over. Not only that, they are over 10 minutes early, thanks to Mihhail Gerts who generously lets the London Symphony Orchestra off the last part of his allotted time. So he certainly has the brownie points, not least because he also paid the players a massive compliment (that I didn’t catch exactly but which elicited an approving, growled “hear hear”).

I have a confession: I find the first movement of Scheherazade quite the most tedious piece of music. Is it just me? Once the nice violin solo is out the way, it’s wave upon wave of unremitting string crossing and the same tune, which is only half a tune, isn’t it, when you think about it?

I think conductors like it, mind. Bar after bar of sweeping music to get stuck into, summoning one surge after another and few banana skins on the way. It suits Mihhail Gerts to the ground, and he spent part of his morning session playing through the movement without stopping. The last movement of the Stravinsky Symphony in Three Movements, although very different in character suits him too.

Sure enough, we’re getting a fair amount of Stravinsky this afternoon.

But Jiri Rozen wanted to tie up some loose ends with Scheherazade first – by the looks of it he spent the time after his morning appearance figuring out exactly which passages he felt most uncertain about, or that were the most liable to trip him up later, because he focused specifically on those moments and not simply playing through long stretches of music again.

The first 50 minutes are up (I said earlier that the conductors each get 40 minutes per session, but it is in fact 50), and it is the Czech Jiri Rozen who has finished his first turn.

A nice moment: after rehearsing a passage he drops his hands and says a big thankyou. The orchestra give him a clap and tap a few bows on stands, and give him a smile that must surely encourage him. But, ha ha, he’s not going anywhere just yet! He still has 5 minutes of his time left.