Who'll take Simon Rattle's baton at the Berlin Phil?

The current music director of the Boston Symphony has been a conspicuously frequent guest conductor in Berlin. And in an informal poll, he was the Berlin audience's clear favorite. Like Simon Rattle, he's also led the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Seeing the young Latvian wield the baton is a pleasure for the eyes: Nelsons' motions are so fluid it almost seems he has no bones in his body.

The even younger Venezualean, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is a product of the highly-acclaimed "Systema" of his home country, which gives children from the slums a musical education. Elan and vision are among Dudamel's qualities. And were he to be chosen, he'd bring along some New World vitality - just like the Pope.

The principal conductor of the Staatskappelle Dresden is also artistic director of the Salzburg Easter Festival. Is he about to add the conductor's stool in Berlin to his collection? Thielemann could be expected to refocus the Philharmonic's repertory on the German Classical and Romantic eras - something badly needed after the Rattle era, according to critics.

Whether with his East-Western Divan Orchestra, as pianist or as general music director at the Berlin State Opera, the Argentine-born Israeli frequently finds himself in the limelight. A plus: Barenboim debuted with the Berliner Philharmonic 50 years ago and has the longest performance history with them. A minus: his age.

A rising star, the Philadelphia Orchestra's music director stands at the helm of the Rotterdam Philharmonic and guest-conducts on the world's top stages. Charismatic seems too mild a description for the French-Canadian bundle of energy. Nézet-Séguin spellbinds orchestra members and audiences. No other conductor since Leonard Bernstein has unfurled that kind of magic, observers say.

The chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra led the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam for 11 years. Under his direction it was named the world's finest. Charismatic yet understated, the star maestro is constantly on the go: on tour, on television and radio and in the recording studio. Jansons is heavily represented on recordings, many of which have won prizes.

Name the world's most important conductors, and his Chailly will invariably be among them. The Italian leads the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig and is music director at La Scala in Milan. He, too, led the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, from 1998 until 2004. But should Berlin beckon, there might be an obstacle: Chailly recently extended his contract in Leizpig to the year 2020.

Only 1.6 meters tall (5'2"), the press-avoiding maestro conducts at perhaps the world's most prestigious opera house, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. Praised as the "Siberian Mozart," he is also a much-accomplished Wagnerian conductor. Named Conductor of the Year three times in a row, Petrenko's renditions are impeccably precise, but never pedantic.