The first tour, to take place August 25-31, will include three concerts at the Lucerne Festival; a stop in Ludwigsburg, Germany; and yet-to-be scheduled performances in the U.K. At Lucerne, the orchestra will give the world premiere of Chen Yi's Si Ji (Four Seasons, the latest work commissioned in a partnership between the orchestra, the festival, Carnegie Hall, and the Roche corporation.

The tour repertoire will also include works by Beethoven, Bart‹k, Ravel, Mahler, and Schubert.

The second tour, October 21-November 3, will include a residency at the Musikverein in Vienna and performances in Luxembourg, Germany, and Hungary. The orchestra will perform works by Messiaen, Mahler, Ives, Schubert, Stravinsky, Thomas Ads, and Chen.

In addition, the orchestra will travel to the southeastern United States in January 2006 for concerts led by former principal guest conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy.

The orchestra has also announced that the Vienna Philharmonic will perform at Cleveland's Severance Hall on March 8, 2006. Riccardo Muti will lead a program of Strauss, Mozart, and Schubert. The Philharmonic last performed in Cleveland in 2003; before that, it had not visited since 1967. Tickets for the concert go on sale to subscribers later this month and to the general public in August.