What now for the Royal Philharmonic?

The struggling London orchestra was the last in the world this week to cut its ties with Charles Dutoit after the Swiss conductor was accused of multiple acts of sexual misconduct, which he denies.

The reason the RPO was behind the beat is because it desperately needs a flagship conductor with international name recognition, and they are getting harder and harder to find.

Without Dutoit, the RPO will find it harder to book the world tours it needs to stay alive.

So what will it do next?

Probably offer the post to Pinchas Zukerman, its principal guest conductor who’s coming free in Ottawa.

Failing that, the rest of its season features the Israeli Ilan Volkov and the Venezuelan Rafael Payaré (pictured with wife Alisa Weilerstein). Both have experience with UK orchestras. And that’s about it for headline acts.

The one sound the RPO cannot afford to make at this stage is that of a barrel being scraped.