It hardly seemed to matter if sterling’s fall against the dollar means postponing that trip to New York. Hearing the New York Philharmonic at the BBC Proms last week was almost like being over there again – playing as brilliant as neon signs flashing in Times Square and a horn section honking like car hooters on Broadway.

It is more than a decade since the New York Philharmonic last came to the Proms. Since then, the long-serving Kurt Masur has been replaced as music director by Lorin Maazel, widely seen at the outset as a stopgap conductor who could hold the fort until somebody younger and fresher came along.