Our 97/98 season began with a much awaited return to the Luzern Festival by the Philharmonia Orchestra for two conerts conducted by Claus Peter Flor. Programmes included a firecracker performance of Shostakovich Symphony No 10 as well as Brahms Symphony No 4. The following day the Philharmonia and Flor took part in the Montreux Festival in a stunning Wagner programme with Anne Evans and Robert Hale. Further activities in the autumn included a highly successful 10-concert tour of Japan by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Flor (including two concerts at Suntory Hall in Tokyo and a concert in the new Sumida Triphony Hall), and a tour of Germany (including Munich, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf) by the London Mozart Players with Howard Shelley as conductor. In this country, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, under the auspices of Intermusica, made its debut in Manchester's Bridgewater Hall. Spring projects include a UK tour by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under their Principal Guest Conductor Ingo Metzmacher, and a Swiss tour by the Kirov Opera with Valery Gergiev (concerts in Bern, Basel, Geneva, Lugano and Montreux). Looking a little further ahead we are delighted to have arranged the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's debut in the USA, with two concerts at the Mostly Festival this summer. A classical programme will be conducted by Paul Daniel (with Emanuel Ax as soloist) and a baroque programme has Emma Kirkby as soloist. Furthermore, a nine-concert tour of Switzerland by the London Mozart Players and Matthias Bamert is planned for May.