Despite 11 hours of meetings, several rounds of voting, much speculation (to which we responded incurring much egg on face - our sincere apologies), the Berliner Philharmoniker has still not appointed a successor to Sir Simon Rattle, who steps down from the Chief Conductorship in 2018.

Among the names supposedly considered in the ballot were Daniel Barenboim, Christian Thielemann, Gustavo Dudamel, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Mariss Jansons and Andris Nelsons, though a number of them have recently renewed contracts with their existing ensembles making them essentially unavailable. That a second vote took place suggests that either no candidate had a clear majority at Round 1 or that the conductor initially offered the post declined.

The voting process, while undeniably democratic (a secret ballot by the 123-strong orchestra), does open the successful candidate up to the charge of not receiving the wholehearted backing of the ensemble or of not even being its first choice (conductors are chosen regardless of their availability and can decline – Carlos Kleiber supposedly did following Karajan's death in 1989).

According to Orchestra Board member Peter Riegelbauer: 'We must continue this process and this election. That will have to take place within one year. We are very confident that we will come to a decision then. The process of this election will be continued, and the orchestra assembly will meet regularly, but we will take the time that is necessary. That can last one year.' 

Clarification: A previous version of this article referred to a 'well-placed tweet' as the source of speculation about the new chief conductor - it is now our understanding that this was a fake, and was not sent by anyone from within the orchestra.