Besides Toscanini, other conductors in the festival’s «salad days» included Bruno Walter, Ernest Ansermet and Vittorio de Sabata. The year 1943 witnessed the formation of the Swiss Festival Orchestra, with élite musicians from all of Switzerland. This ensemble, which played under such commanding fi gures as Wilhelm Furtwängler, Herbert von Karajan and Otto Klemperer, contributed noticeably to the festival’s rapidly growing prestige, holding concerts on an annual basis until 1993.
Under the leadership of executive director Michael Haefliger (since 1999), the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA was co-founded jointly with Claudio Abbado in 2003. Since 2004 the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY, headed by Pierre Boulez, has placed a major focus on music of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Easter Festival has taken place on an annual basis since 1988, as has the marathon Piano Festival, held every November since 1998.
LUCERNE FESTIVAL
At The Piano, November 23 - 29, 2009
At Easter, March 20 - March 28, 2010
In Summer, August 12 – September 18, 2010
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The birth of LUCERNE FESTIVAL dates from the gala concert that Arturo Toscanini conducted in front of Richard Wagner’s former home in Tribschen in 1938.
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LUCERNE FESTIVAL in Summer | 12 August – 19 September 2009
This year Lucerne’s classic Summer Festival will be devoted to the theme of “Nature”. The program includes Vivaldi’s and Haydn’s Seasons, Strauss’s Alpine Symphony, and Debussy’s La Mer. Claudio Abbado opens the season with fi ve concerts of his now legendary LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA.
The Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics will come to Lucerne, as will the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Chicago and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, all playing under conductors of the stature of Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, Charles Dutoit, John Eliot Gardiner, Riccardo Chailly, and Simon Rattle. The focus of the concerts will fall on the “artistes étoiles” Magdalena Kožená (mezzo-soprano) and Yefim Bronfman (piano). Kaija Saariaho and Jörg Widmann will present their most recent works as composers-in-residence while offering new answers to the age-old question about the nature of music.
Order your tickets for all our Summer events on www.lucernefestival.ch
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Contact Information
- Lucerne Festival
Hirschmattstrasse 13
6002 Lucerne
Switzerland
Phone +41 (0)41 226 44 00
Fax +41 (0)41 226 44 60
info@lucernefestival.ch - www.lucernefestival.ch
