Tempting sometimes to imagine that the London Symphony Orchestra would give pointed, energised performances even if conducted by a lamp-post. But the person waving the stick matters, and every two years the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition comes around to prove it.

From the initial 20 candidates this year's final stage left us with three. Each was handed Verdi's Force of Destiny overture and one other orchestral slab, assigned by lot. We heard Verdi turned into an efficient clockwork toy, Verdi roaring with excitement, and Verdi safely jogging along.

Mr Safety won: David Afkham, German/American, 25 years old, slight, dark-haired, with useful long arms. He was not the candidate who stirred the highest temperature, or could claim the widest experience; that was the UK's Michael Francis, the LSO double-bass player, who last year famously conducted hairy Sofia Gubaidulina scores for an indisposed Gergiev. But Afkham appeared the steadier prospect. And his Rhine Journey and Funeral March from Götterdämmerung did more than jog: he successfully steered the LSO through music not in their current repertory, and conjured up palpable majesty.

Had Francis pressed on with the intelligent panache shown in his Verdi, the prize might have been his. But he fell back with Ravel's second Daphnis and Chloe suite - in spots sensuous and well-engineered, but too brash and hard-pressed overall.

Meanwhile the French candidate Ariane Matiakh (the first woman to reach the Flick finals) burdened herself with a rigid conducting technique of swooping semi-circles and vertical chops and little visible coaxing of expression. In the Verdi, and Brahms's St Anthony Variations, the LSO gave her the notes, but not the heart.

Afkham now proceeds to a two-year stint as the LSO's assistant conductor, and has prize money of £15,000 to put in the bank.

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