With Stephen Langridge’s appointment, managerial responsibility has been split for the first time in many years. As artistic director he will share the task of steering the organisation with long-term insider Sarah Hopwood, until recently the company’s finance director but appointed managing director in May. Recent predecessors – such as Anthony Whitworth-Jones, who held the job from 1989 to 1998, David Pickard (2001-15), who now runs the BBC Proms, and Sebastian F Schwarz, who disappeared almost before he began in 2017 – held the top job alone.