Now 52, he is principal conductor of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk Orchester; when he first left the Soviet Union for New York, he enrolled at the Mannes College of Music, where a powerful agent soon spotted him at the helm of a student ensemble. It was a sign of exactly how much can go wrong, and how quickly. To stand an under-experienced conductor in front of a high-profile orchestra or opera company means playing for very high stakes - and one critic called Sokhiev's appointment "a gamble that did not pay off".It's catch-22: conductors cannot conduct without experience, but they cannot gain that experience without conducting. That is of course nothing new in this peculiar profession; but the pressure to make it to the top very young is certainly increasing in a society generally fixated on youth. Hugh Macdonald, director of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, comments: "There is always a race to find the next prodigy conductor, and that can be damaging if they are thrown into the limelight before they can handle it. For every young conductor who makes it, there are several more who have been pushed too early."The Russian conductor Semyon Bychkov is well placed to cast perspective on these challenges, having successfully navigated many of them himself.

A few weeks ago Daniel Harding, 29, a prot? of Sir Simon Rattle and already a highly respected figure, was appointed principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. Vladimir Jurowski was appointed music director at Glyndebourne while still in his twenties; now 32 and principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, he is being hailed as "the next Gergiev". Philippe Jordan, 29, is principal conductor of the Graz Philharmonic and has conducted opera at the Salzburg Festival and Covent Garden to impressive reviews. Ilan Volkov, 28, has been installed as chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for two years; and Mikko Franck is music director of the Finnish National Opera at only 25.It's a welcome regeneration for a profession that is often seen as stultifyingly mired in venerability. The lucky winner will benefit from an unusual prize: two years as assistant conductor to the London Symphony Orchestra. At the moment, the worldwide picture of successful young conductors is singularly impressive.

But is there now an inordinate focus on youthfulness for its own sake that could be doing some young conductors more harm than good? In August, the 26-year-old Tugan Sokhiev crashed abruptly out of his post as principal conductor of Welsh National Opera, amid complaints from the chorus about his lack of experience. Now the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, held in London every two years, is getting ready to discover the latest potential addition to this extraordinary roster at its Barbican final on 17 November. The idea of a conductor wielding a fierce baton over a cowering symphony orchestra evokes a somewhat senior presence, with a shock of white hair, or at least a substantial bald patch, to lend authority. But recently a remarkable number of the plum conducting posts in the UK, indeed in the world, have been taken over by fresh-faced maestri under the age of 30.

With sales of more than 500,000 DVDs and one million CDs expected, the move is worth an estimated £5m, and will be higher if they sell more.Sir Bob praised the Chancellor for what he called a "remarkable gesture". He said: "It will be a hugely significant sum of money that will help alleviate the misery of the hungry in Africa."The Government has promised to make Africa a key priority when it takes over the presidency of the G8 leading industrial nations in January.. The Treasury has given the Band Aid charity a £5m boost by promising to refund the VAT on a DVD of the 1985 Live Aid concert and a new CD of the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?". Gordon Brown said the Government would ensure that every penny from sales of the DVD and CD would go to the Band Aid Trust to support its work in the poorest countries of Africa.Twenty years ago, Sir Bob Geldof fought a long campaign to prevent the Treasury keeping the VAT receipts from Band Aid's original Christmas number one record. Eventually, Tory ministers agreed to make a donation worth the same amount to charities working in Ethiopia and Chad. Mr Brown headed off similar demands byoffering to refund the VAT on the two new releases. It was followed by the North-west on 26 per cent, Yorkshire and Humberside on 25 per cent and the rest of the north of England on 24 per cent.One other London borough, Islington's poorer neighbour Hackney, recorded the smallest increase in England and Wales of just £690 or 0.4 per cent over the year.Windsor and Maidenhead, the Berkshire borough that includes both the royal castle and Eton College, recorded a rise of 4.5 per cent, the smallest in any non-metropolitan area.The average house price in England and Wales for the quarter was £187,971, an annual increase of 16.27 per cent..