On the occasion of Claudio Abbado’s 80th birthday in June 2013, this special feature throws a glance at Abbado’s work with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. The close connection between the orchestra and its conductor is documented by excerpts from rehearsals and concert recordings as well as personal interviews with the maestro talking about composers, his approach to their works and the collaboration with the orchestra. —– With excerpts from: Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART “Haffner Symphony” and Requiem (featuring René Pape), Anton BRUCKNER Symphony No. 1, Gustav MAHLER Symphony No. 9 and Adagio from Symphony No. 10, Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Incidental Music to Goethe’s Tragedy “Egmont” featuring Juliane Banse and Bruno Ganz.
Lucerne Festival 2024: Chailly conducts Rachmaninoff
The Lucerne Festival Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly continues its Rachmaninov journey on Lake Lucerne. The program includes the rare Symphonic Movement in D minor, the Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 and the Scherzo in D minor. In the spotlight: the shooting star Alexander Malofeev, who performs the Piano Concerto No. 1. Alexander Malofeev, who attracted the attention of the classical music world at a young age, is, according to Riccardo Chailly, “more than just a child prodigy” and, despite his young age, possesses not only technical mastery but also a musical maturity that makes him the “ideal Rachmaninov interpreter”.
Lucerne Festival 2024: Chailly conducts Mahler 7
The Lucerne Festival Orchestra opens the 2024 edition of the summer festival on Lake Lucerne with Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7, the most complex and mysterious of his symphonies and for a long time his least frequently performed work. The conductor will be none other than the Italian conductor Riccardo Chailly, himself an ardent admirer of the Viennese master.
Lucerne Festival 2023: Paavo Järvi & Maria João Pires
In another prominent concert of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra’s 20th anniversary edition, Maria Joa~o Pires performed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9, “Jenamy”, with the orchestra under the baton of Paavo Järvi, who “builds a sanctuary of delicate grace around his soloist.” (FAZ) PROGRAM Mozart Piano Concerto No. 9, K. 271;
Andante from Piano Concerto No. 21, K. 467 (encore)
Lucerne Festival 2023: Paavo Järvi conducts Mahler 3
In its 20th season, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra opened the 2023 summer festival with Mahler’s Third. Paavo Järvi takes over for Riccardo Chailly on short notice and proved to be a more than worthy substitute. He led orchestra, chorus, and soloist Wiebke Lehmkuhl to an “air-spirited serenity” (FAZ)
Lucerne Festival 2022: Chailly conducts Rachmaninov
For Riccardo Chailly, celebrating Rachmaninov in Lucerne is something dear to his heart. This summer, he is devoting himself to the Symphony No. 2 in E Minor – the composer’s richest and densest contribution to the genre, evoking Tchaikovsky in form, as well as Borodin and Sibelius in the epic, almost Nordic spirit of its music.
Lucerne Festival 2022: Riccardo Chailly & Mao Fujita
Sergei Rachmaninov is perhaps most remembered—and beloved—for his piano concertos, which still stand as pillars of Romanticism, though mostly written in the 20th century. At the 2022 Lucerne Festival, virtuoso pianist Mao Fujita performs the composer’s celebrated Piano Concerto No. 2—absolutely brimming with memorable melody and poignant harmony—alongside maestro Riccardo Chailly at the head of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra!
Lucerne Festival 2021: Chailly conducts Mozart & Schubert
to the podium of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. Together, they opened the festival with two great masters of the Classic Romantic era: Mozart and Schubert. The overture to Don Giovanni was followed by a mesmerizing rendition of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 – one of only two he wrote in a minor key. In contrast, Schubert’s Symphony No. 6 focuses on the sunny side of life: C Major, Viennese nonchalance, pleasure put to sound with playful ideas that orchestra and conductor expertly demonstrated.
Lucerne Festival 2020: Blomstedt conducts Beethoven
In 1949, at only seven years old, Martha Argerich made her debut with Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto and the piece has accompanied her throughout her career. Naturally, Argerich has discovered new facets of this work over the decades. And she surely did so when she performed this signature piece with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Herbert Blomstedt who gave his debut with the orchestra thanks to a very special festival edition in August 2020. Beethoven’s music plays a very important role in Blomstedt’s career and thus the concert featured another work of the composer: his Symphony No. 2. PROGRAM Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1, Symphony No. 2
Lucerne Festival 2019: Chailly conducts Rachmaninoff
Everything changed for Sergei Rachmaninoff after 1917. As a result of the October Revolution, power impinged directly on his life – and on his art. The new political conditions forced him to leave his Russian homeland and flee into exile in the West. In order to earn a living, he had to perform for the most part as a piano virtuoso, constantly touring Europe and America. Which meant he had hardly any time left over to compose. The program with which Riccardo Chailly and his Lucerne Festival Orchestra open the 2019 Summer Festival orbits around this turning point in Rachmaninoff’s life, pairing the legendary Third Piano Concerto, written in Russia in 1909, with the melancholy Third Symphony, which he created as an émigré in Hertenstein near Lucerne in 1935-36. PROGRAM Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto Nr. 3; Symphony No. 3; Vocalise op. 34 No. 14