A program of rich colors and late-Romantic intensity unfolds as Riccardo Chailly and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra open the evening with Scriabin’s shimmering Rêverie, a brief yet atmospheric sound vision. Rising star Lukas Sternath then performs Sergei Rachmaninoff’s rarely heard Piano Concerto No. 4, presented in the composer’s 1941 revision, where virtuosity, modern clarity, and lyrical depth find a remarkable balance. After the interval, the orchestra explores the dramatic world of Rachmaninoff’s opera Aleko through a selection of orchestral scenes full of passion, contrast, and dance. The concert concludes with Ottorino Respighi’s brilliant orchestrations of Rachmaninoff’s Cinq Études-Tableaux, transforming the piano pieces into vivid symphonic landscapes.
Lucerne Festival 2026: Opening Concert with Riccardo Chailly
The Lucerne Festival launches its 2026 summer season with a program celebrating the breadth of American music. Riccardo Chailly and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra pair the vibrant sound world of George Gershwin with the early symphonic voice of Charles Ives. Gershwin’s Cuban Overture sets a spirited opening, alive with rhythmic drive and Caribbean color. Pianist Frank Dupree then brings his versatility to the Concerto in F major, where Gershwin seamlessly fuses the pulse of jazz with classical structure, culminating in a sparkling, high-energy finale. After the interval comes a shift in tone with Ives’s Symphony No. 1 in D minor, a work rooted in the late-Romantic tradition yet already hinting at the originality that would define his later music. Its lush orchestral writing and subtle surprises offer a compelling counterpart to Gershwin’s urban flair. Together, these works form an opening night that blends vitality, virtuosity, and the spirit of discovery—an ideal start to the Festival’s summer season.
Albrecht Mayer in Concert
Unlike the piano, the violin or even the flute, the oboe is a relatively rare instrument for a solo career. And when a soloist such as Albrecht Mayer plays the oboe, one wishes composers had written more works for this weetly mellow instrument. Critics write about the “divine spark” that inspires his playing, and about the “miraculous oboe” that turns into “an instrument of seduction.” With his particularly warm tone and exceptionally broad palette of nuances, it’s no surprise that Albrecht Mayer is one of today’s most sought-after international oboists.
Lucerne Festival 2018: Chailly conducts Ravel
A breathtaking all-Ravel program with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly to celebrate the orchestra’s 15th anniversary. Founded in 2003 by Claudio Abbado, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra quickly grew into much more than “just” another festival orchestra. The incredible clarity and intensity of this orchestra, the wonderful timbres that make it so extraordinary – there is no program more suitable for experiencing and showcasing its uniqueness than the concert with works by Maurice Ravel. “That ballet music is a precursor of film music is seldom heard as directly as in the long camera shots through wide and whirling soundscapes.” Luzerner Zeitung PROGRAM Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales; La Valse; Daphnis et Chloé – Suites Nos. 1 & 2; Boléro
Nelsons conducts Mahler – Des Knaben Wunderhorn
With Gustav Mahler, laughter and tears are often closely connected. As performed by Matthias Goerne, Andris Nelsons, and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, the songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn showed this at the Lucerne Summer Festival in 2015. The gaiety of Rheinlegendchen is placed here with the tale of starvation in Das irdische Leben, and the satirical Fischpredigt of St. Anthony is juxtaposed with the march of the fallen soldiers in Revelge. Baritone Goerne shapes these songs with “introspection and narrative clarity”, while Nelsons “proves to be a sensitive accompanist”, according to Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
Nelsons conducts Mahler No. 5
Almost no other orchestra has been so involved with Gustav Mahler and established such an outstanding Mahler sound as the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. This tradition was continued in the summer of 2015. In his concerts with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, the renowned 37-year-old Andris Nelsons conducted Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, a work whose emotional spectrum ranges from the opening movement’s funeral march, through the declaration of love in the famous Adagietto – which Nelsons interpreted as an “intense chamber music love song in the passionate dimensions of Tristan” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung) – to the jubilant hymn of the finale.
Claudio Abbado conducts Beethoven’s Music to Egmont and Mozart’s Requiem at Lucerne Festival
The opening of the Lucerne Festival 2012, Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in the first part present a most powerful composition dedicated to Goethe’s hero Egmont, the Incidental Music to ‘Egmont’ by Beethoven. The second part of the program includes Mozart’s last composition, the Requiem in D Minor, which was left unfinished due to the early death of the composer.
Lucerne Festival: Abbado conducts Mozart
For many music lovers, Christine Schäfer’s Mozart interpretations are a revelation. She has little in common with the routine conventions of her field and her artistry is enourmously powerful as this program featuring concert arias by Mozart, with Abbado conducting the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA, shows. This TV program is coupled with Mozart’s ‘Haffner’ Symphony, which was originally performed in Salzburg as a serenade to be played by torchlight. Program: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
‘Misera, dove son!’ – ‘Ah, non son io che parlo,’ K. 369; ‘Ah, lo previdi’ – ‘Ah, t’invola,’ K. 272; ‘Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio!,’ K. 418; Symphony in D major, K. 385 ‘Haffner’.
Lucerne Festival: Abbado conducts Bruckner 5
‘Abbado’s approach to the music of Bruckner is soft and songlike, at times tense and urgent, but constantly filles with warmth of feeling (…)’ wrot critic Peter Hagmann in the ‘Neue Züricher Zeitung’. On 19 August 2011 Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra presented Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5 and did credit to this review. The handpicked players of the orchestra filled the famous concert hall in the Culture and Convention Centre Lucerne with impressive and unforgettable sounds.
Lucerne Festival 2017: Chailly conducts Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn
“What an evening. What a kickoff. The future of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra – it has now begun.” This is how Peter Hagmann of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung described Riccardo Chailly’s debut as the new artistic director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra last year. Chailly devoted himself in his second year in Lucerne to the works of composers that strongly influenced him during his conducting career. Among these are Felix Mendelssohn and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The program included Mendelssohn’s enchanting tone poems to Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Tchaikovsky’s “Manfred Symphony”, based on the poem written by Lord Byron.