The Well-Tempered Conductor

Baldish, moustachioed Sir Adrian Boult, who heads the crack BBC Symphony Orchestra, boasts that "blood seldom flows at my rehearsals." But last week his musicians were up in arms: bad blood was up, if not flowing.

Before guests invited to a BBC rehearsal in London's Albert Hall, Sir Adrian told his men that they were "all too tired to play their best." He advised them to emulate him by resting up weekends, specifically forbade golf, gardening and repair work on blitzed houses. "A little washing up" (but not too much) was sufficient exercise, he said.

The musicians were irate at being told off in public, but Sir Adrian budged not an inch: "If the public were eavesdropping they had no right at all. ... I was not nasty and I did not lose my temper, as perhaps I have to do once every five years."

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