The season is only just emerging from its long siesta, and all I can do today is to discuss forthcoming events. The National Orchestra has announced an outline of works to be played, and, quite recently, I heard one of its first broadcasts from 2YA, under the baton of Dr. Bainton. It was not much fun, I thought—as if the component parts of our main music-making body were grudgingly reassembling in the unfavourably hot weather of mid-February. I was a bit late in tuning in, but managed to listen to Smetana's famous "Bartered Bride" overture, and it was a far from pleasant experience. There was neither unity of playing, nor freshness of rendering. However, it is certainly too early to judge the orchstra and its new conductor. The programmes so far outlined are in-teresing enough, and soloists as Colin Horaley and Cara Hall hold some promise. Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto will be a healthy change from the romantic thundering on the keyboard which was one of last year's main crops—Tschaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Grieg, etc. I am also looking forward to Vaughan Williams' Sixth Symphony.