Claudio Abbado himself chose Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody as the center of the opening concert 2014, and Andris Nelsons and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra probe its psychological depths – while further exploring the psychic landscape of this German Romantic’s music as expressed in the Second Serenade and the Second Symphony. —– PROGRAM: Brahms: Serenade No. 2 in D major op. 16 for Small Orchestra / Alto Rhapsody op. 53 for Alto, Male Chorus and Orchestra / Symphony No. 2 in D major op. 73. (Cat. No. UNITEL: A955500030000)
Salzburg Festival 2012: Ouverture Spirituelle – Claudio Abbado
After a gap of ten years, Claudio Abbado takes to the rostrum again to conduct a new special facet of the Salzburg Festival of Sacred Music, the Ouverture Spirituelle. The Italian maestro conducts the Orchestra Mozart of Bologna, an ensemble specially dedicated to performing the work of Mozart.
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 2016: Inaugural Concert of Riccardo Chailly – Mahler 8
“To be responsible for this outstanding artistic project that Claudio Abbado has initiated is not only a privilege but it has touched me deeply.” These are the very words Riccardo Chailly uses to describe his new job in Lucerne. The conductor, who left his post as music director of the Gewandhaus Leipzig and became principal conductor at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan last year, follows in this new position Arturo Toscanini and Claudio Abbado, thus becoming the third chief conductor of this unique orchestra. On August 12, 2016, Riccardo Chailly premiered as conductor of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra with an opening concert: The orchestra and its principal conductor paid their respects to the late Abbado with Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8. An inaugural concert that with its superb cast of musicians became a memorable event!