As I was listening to a borrowed copy of Valery Gergiev's versions of Prokofiev's Scythian Suite and Alexander Nevsky (Philips), I was startled to read among the names of the recording producers, the dates and all the other minutiae: Valery Gergiev's clothing courtesy of Ermenegildo Zegna. In one photo he was wearing a rather rumpled-looking dark suit and was standing against a dark background: hardly a ringing endorsement of the Zegna label. In the other - the cover of the Prokofiev piano concertos - he looked more sartorially elegant but it was a small photo so it was hard to tell. Does "courtesy of" mean that Zegna loaned him a suit for the main photo or does he wear their gear all the time? Did Zegna pay to have the credit inserted? Why was it there anyway? I don't buy that many full-price CDs and so I thought this might have been a manifestation of a subtle advertising campaign aimed at those who do, and I haven't known about it. Hollywood, and by extension, the advertising industry, seem to regard the CM-buying demographic as being made up of people who are seriously loaded. If we were all as wealthy as that image suggests, we wouldn't be telling other listers about where to find a good bargain CD and the staff at Berkshire would be on a street corner selling pencils. Perhaps the target audience is other conductors. The subtext could be a reminder that there have been occasions when a conductor has made an impassioned two-handed lunge at the trombones and been hugely embarrassed to feel the seam in the back of his coat split: this, Riccardo, Claudio, Lorin or whoever, would never happen with a Zegna coat on your back. And why stop at suits? Surely we need credits for the maestro's shoes, his baton, his hair gel, that little shop in London where he buys bespoke cummerbunds, the restaurant he goes to when he's in St Petersburg for a really good reindeer steak. Or the designer of that gorgeous red number Renee Fleming is wearing on the cover of her new album. Or the name of Barbara Bonney's hair stylist, or Simon Rattle's, if he has one. Let's hope this idea meets the fate it deserves. Richard Pennycuick