Salzburg Festival Blog 33 (27 Aug)

Last minute errands: pharmacy, dry cleaners, scores and my office in the Mozarteum Orchesterhaus all demand my attention before my holiday begins on Monday. Last visit to Schloss Aigen this Festival time for lunch with Harold Clarkson. Harold is Anglo-Austrian, and the heavy-hitting head of IMG Artists International Touring. He is ebullient and constantly entertaining and we have business to discuss regarding our Mozarteum Orchestra tours.

The evening performance of ‘Armida’ is rapturously received. Brenda Hurley (with new boyfriend Eddie, from her native Dublin) and I eat afterwards in Triangel. We are joined by Alain Perroux (Eva Wagner’s successor as casting-director of the Aix-en-Provence Festival where I will be conducting for most of next summer).