Lucerne Festival
Building on this rich tradition, the events of LUCERNE FESTIVAL today are regarded among the leading international music offerings, along with those of Bayreuth and Salzburg.
© Lucerne Festival
In 1938, Lucerne Festival began its unique musical tradition quite magnificently with the now legendary Concert de Gala conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Building on this rich tradition, the events of Lucerne Festival today are regarded among the leading international music offerings, along with those of Bayreuth and Salzburg.
Lucerne Festival now presents three festivals a year - LUCERNE FESTIVAL at Easter, LUCERNE FESTIVAL in Summer and LUCERNE FESTIVAL at the Piano.
Inaugurated in 1998, the spectacular Lucerne concert hall built by French architect Jean Nouvel and acoustics consultant Russel Johnson has become the central performance site of the Lucerne Festival events.
© Lucerne Festival
The most recent additions to this annual “summit of world-class orchestras” are the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA under the baton of Maestro Claudio Abbado, as well as the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY with its artistic director Pierre Boulez.
Founded in 2003, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra unites musicians of the Mahler Chamber orchestra with the world’s leading soloists and chamber musicians and has become a highlight of the program of Lucerne Festival in Summer.
The Academy is a new and future–oriented training platform which year by year teaches about 120 young and highly talented musicians from all over the world the art of interpreting the contemporary music repertoire.
LUCERNE FESTIVAL IN SUMMER 2009
The Lucerne Festival has chosen “Nature” as the motto and leitmotif for the LUCERNE FESTIVAL 2009 summer season. And what could be a more appropriate theme for Lucerne, where you can enjoy a walk in the mountains during the day and An Alpine Symphony in the concert hall in the evening?
Landscapes, the sounds of nature, birdsong, the seasons and the weather's fickle swings have all been evoked in music over the centuries. Nature acts as an archetype, a model and even a mentor for art. This leitmotif also gives us the chance to explore the ideal of unrefined naturalness that has long preoccupied composers, whether they were for it or against it.
Two such composers, in fact this year’s “composers-in-residence”, Kaija Saariaho and Jörg Widmann, will be adding their personal cachet to the Festival through concerts, discussions and premières. In addition they will be providing some unexpected answers to the eternal and eternally fresh question about the nature of music itself. We are also delighted to be welcoming two extraordinary, internationally acclaimed artists, singer Magdalena Kožená and pianist Yefim Bronfman, who will be our “artistes étoiles”. With their impressive versatility, they will move through different musical eras to add their particular zest to the upcoming summer programme.
