Sir Neville conducted a lithe, clear-textured account of Mendelssohn's inventive music.

Sir Neville briefed the Cabinet about the details of Hitler's demands, since when they have met twice more to discuss Britain's response.

According to legend, the late Sir Neville called a fellow player a snooker after a particularly poor shot.

Sir Neville was knighted in 1972 and retired from the air force in 1978 after four decades of service.

"We have been fortunate," Sir Neville said recently by telephone from his home in London.

What we wanted more than anything," Sir Neville said, "was to avoid becoming routine performers.

Actually, Sir Neville has another way of insuring flexibility.

And Sir Neville, with his background in the London Symphony (of which he remained a member until 1968), was not one to push that agenda.

The standard of original-instrument performance has improved enormously," Sir Neville said, "and the academy is intensely grateful for the scholarship that those groups have done.

About 15 years ago, Sir Neville flirted briefly with a conventional conducting career.