At the dawn of the new millennium Berlin and its orchestra want to become the vanguard of modernity

At the dawn of the new millennium, Berlin and its orchestra want to become the vanguard of modernity.Sir Simon transformed theBirmingham Symphony Orchestra in his 17 years there, making it one of the best orchestras in the world. Daniel Barenboim, who conducts the Berlin State Opera and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and who is the widower of the cellist Jacqueline du Pre, was believed to have been his main rival for the post. Sir Simon follows in the footsteps of the legendary Wilhelm Furtwangler and Herbert von Karajan, whose interpretations of some classics have yet to be surpassed But that is not Sir Simon's task. Members of the Berlin Philharmonic voted overwhelmingly for Sir Simon Rattle to lead them after the current maestro, Claudio Abbado, retires in three years' time. THE MOST prestigious orchestra in the world took a gamble with its own future yesterday,choosing as its chief conductor a youngish iconoclast from a distant land once mocked for being tone deaf.

Ironically the conclusion of those sympathetic to the Bramleys will simply be that the social workers had got it wrong again.. After Rikki's mother was jailed for child cruelty the council admitted that it had tried too hard to keep Rikki within his birth family.Two years later Keith Laverack, a former Cambridgeshire senior social services manager, was sentenced to 18 years for assaulting children in council care. It has been heavily criticised for the death of little Rikki Neave, who was on Cambridgeshire's at risk register, five years ago. Though Cambridgeshire Social Services has reason to be cautious about child care decisions. How much more damaging would a separation be considered if the couple and the girls were missing for one or even two years?But most people will no doubt be delighted by the decision.

A decision would eventually have to be made in the best interests of the children. .Professionals speculated during the abduction that the Bramleys were actually strengthening their case to keep the girls. Four days after writing a rather cloying letter to newspapers, pleading for them to be allowed to be the girls' "Mummy and Daddy forever", they had finally arranged to hand themselves in to waiting police and social workers.They had in fact spent most of their 17 weeks on the run in a holiday caravan in Fenit, a remote village in Co Kerry.Child care professionals will worry that yesterday's court ruling will encourage others to take off rather than hand back children to the authorities. The net seemed to be closing in.Less than a week later the Bramleys surprised everyone by flying into Stansted Airport in Essex from the Irish Republic. Ten days later police said they believed that a CCTV video had recorded the Bramleys and the girls in Pickering, Yorkshire. A retired clergyman working on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway brought detective teams scurrying north with a "strong" sighting of a harassed couple struggling to control two little girls.Reverend Jack Cooper painted a picture of parental inadequacy with the children out of control and the Bramleys - for he was absolutely sure it was them - looking depressed, worn out and beaten, particularly Jenny. No-one had reported it, although its description had been endlessly publicised by the police.Ironically that clue, so long in coming, sent police - and some members of the public - off on the wrong track.

An empty handbag lay abandoned alongside a pile of plastic-wrapped tea bags.It transpired that the car had been sitting in the street for at least five weeks. Inside was Hannah's pink fluffy anorak with the white fake fur trim and jackets belonging to Jeff, Jenny and Jade The children's car seats were still in the vehicle. Then the breakthrough the police had been praying for finally came at the end of December.The Bramleys' Honda Concerto was found abandoned in a residential street in York. By Jade's fifth birthday on October 28, embarrassed police still had no firm sighting or good leads.So bereft were they of clues, that officers had to consider the awful possibility that the Bramleys had, by design or accident, driven off the road into one of the deep water channels which start close to Ramsey and criss -cross east Anglia.The children's pictures appeared on milk cartons There was a television appeal on BBC's Crimewatch.

Police said they could easily melt in with the crowd.Aware of the support for the Bramleys, the police appealed repeatedly to the public to put the children first.The girls, they argued, had already suffered so much disruption that the Bramleys had to be found, so that the girls could have stability The day Jade was due to start school came and went. They led the police on a four-month wild goose chase across Britain and Ireland.The police became extremely frustrated during the search Sightings stretched from Ireland to Lanzarote. The couple lost, but Mr Bodle claimed the Bramleys never really had a fair hearing because of legal technicalities.Whatever the truth the Bramleys decided to run "Mr and Mrs Average" was how they were described. Very few knew they faced losing the girls and that the Bramleys had been suffering for months.In August, only five months after Jade and Hannah's foster placement began, the Bramleys were told by Cambridgeshire Social Services they were not suitable and the placement was being terminated.Dave Bodle, Jenny's brother who appealed publicly for the Bramleys to turn themselves in, said that the couple were "devastated" by the decision So devastated they appealed to the High Court. Neighbours considered the family, with the two adorable little girls, to be healthy and happy.