The Guardian's music critic Tom Service questions whether wealthy amateurs should be able to buy their way onto the podium of major orchestras, prompted by Canadian businessman Mandle Cheung's plan to conduct the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Mahler's Second Symphony. Cheung, a 78-year-old self-described amateur who founded his own Mandle Philharmonic in Canada, previously paid to conduct the Toronto Symphony and has since set his sights on European orchestras, raising concerns about meritocracy in classical music and the pressures facing orchestras' finances.

Cheung will conduct the RPO, soloists Elizabeth Watts and Jennifer Johnston, and the Brighton Festival Chorus at Alexandra Palace in London on 21 August, performing Mahler's epic Second Symphony. He reportedly paid around C$500,000 (£264,000) to conduct the Toronto Symphony last year, and while his representative confirmed he is paying the RPO for the same privilege, the fee has not been disclosed, with the RPO stating it does not reveal concert fees. Cheung himself has acknowledged the awkwardness of the arrangement, previously telling the New York Times that professional musicians "work really hard all their life" only for an unrecognised conductor to "write you a check and start conducting you."