The new season looms large

It's that time of year when I start to find my sleep interrupted by restless thoughts. The reason for this is that we're now into the time when I spend much of my time working on the next season brochure. It absorbs most of my attention but it also takes place when we still have a number fo concerts in the current season which also require attention, so the pressure on the time available is quite tight.

But there's also some relief in getting to this point because at least it means that the concerts are in place for next season. For some reason it's been a slightly more fraught process than normal but I'm reasonably pleased with the end result - the blend of repertoire (popular and less familiar) and the range of orchestras and soloists. Time will tell of course. It wasn't really until we got to March this year that it became clear how well the 2009-2010 season had done, but it's been hugely satisfying to see how much the audiences have grown over the last six months. It's not going to be easy to match it next season but, fingers crossed, I'm hoping to get somewhere near it at least.

So what's in it you may ask? Well, I don't want to steal the thunder from the last concert on 5 June when the new brochure will be available but I can tell you that the season is going to be slightly bigger and that there will be another related series of concerts that will, I hope, satisfy another need. And since AFTER:hours has established itself quickly, this will continue, too, enabling us to hear a little more contemporary music and less familar repertoire. Andre de Ridder has clearly found his niche in the season here and is the ideal 'front man' for the late night events - it's been great to see the rapport he's got with the audience for these events.

So, for the moment, it's on with the show - three more concerts, all of which look like doing really well. The most prominent is obviously the RPO Gala concert with Pinchas Zukerman on 7 May and, not surprisingly, he's going to have a packed house to perform to - if you were planning to go it's worth getting your tickets now for this. I don't think there will be many left by the time we get to May. And then we've got the season finale on 5 June - a real spectacular if ever there was one. Personally, I can't wait - not just because of what we're going to hear but because it'll mean I've got a chance to catch my breath again.