According to the Times of London, Gabel won conducting performances of the overture to CosÐ fan tutte, which was led by all three finalists, and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9, assigned to him by lottery.

The other finalists were Peter Biloen of the Netherlands, who conducted Strauss's Death and Transfiguration and Denmark's Claus Efland, who led Copland's Appalachian Spring.

The jury included Jan Latham-Koenig, the music director of the Wroclaw Philharmonic; Patrick Harrild, the LSO's principal tuba; and Michel Plasson, the conductor of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and a former winner of the competition.

The biannual competition was founded in 1990 by the LSO and Donatella Flick, the former wife of Muck Flick, an heir to the Daimler-Benz fortune.