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
Happy Birthday, Lucerne! Anniversary Season Opening Concert conducted by Claudio Abbado
2013 marked the 75th birthday of Lucerne Festival. Additionally, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra celebrates its 10th anniversary, and its founder, Claudio Abbado, celebrates his 80th birthday! For the anniversary season opening concert in 2013 Abbado gathers world-famous soloists, who are willing to ‘do the craziest things I ask of them in the interest of the compositions: to fly or to go through the fire.’ The maestro spans a wide and quite contrasting range, from the romantic sounds of BRAHMS’ Tragic Overture to the orchestral interlude and the Song of the Wood-Dove from SCHOENBERG’s Gurrelieder, back to BEETHOVEN’s Eroica. —– PROGRAM: Johannes Brahms: Tragic Overture, Op. 81 / Arnold Schoenberg: Orchestral Interlude and Song of the Wood-Dove from ‘Gurrelieder’ (with Mihoko Fujimura, Mezzo-soprano) / Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 ‘EROICA’
Lucerne Festival 2025: Chailly conducts Mahler
In his internationally acclaimed interpretations of Mahler’s symphonies, Riccardo Chailly focuses on the musical quality of the works, avoiding false pathos and sentimentality while retaining the music’s dramatic intensity. Together with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, and Elina Garanca, he opened the 2025 festival summer festival with Mahler’s poignant, unfinished 10th Symphony and Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder. The concert opened with Pierre Boulez’s Mémoriale, in reverence of the inaugural director of the Lucerne Festival Academy, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday in 2025. PROGRAM Mahler: Rückert-Lieder, Ssymphony No 10; Boulez: Mémoriale
Lucerne Festival 2025: Chailly conducts Rachmaninoff
The Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly continued their journey into Sergei Rachmaninoff’s emotional world. With the rarely performed The Rock, Op. 7, they immersed themselves in the composer’s early work. In his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Rachmaninoff counterposes his own piano virtuosity against the brilliance of the legendary violinist Paganini. The piece was performed by the exceptional pianist Beatrice Rana, renowned worldwide for her electrifying playing. To conclude the evening, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, under Riccardo Chailly’s direction, presented Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1. PROGRAM Rachmaninoff: The Rock, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Symphony No 1