The Lucerne Festival Orchestra is a European ''
ad hoc
Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with ''a priori''.)
Com ...
'' seasonal orchestra based at the annual
Lucerne Festival
Lucerne Festival is one of the leading international festivals in the world of classical music and presents a series of classical music festivals based in Lucerne, Switzerland. Founded in 1938 by Ernest Ansermet and Walter Schulthess, it current ...
in Switzerland.
History
The Lucerne Festival had featured a resident orchestra as far back as 1938, with
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orch ...
conducting the first concert of that ensemble.
From 1943 until its disbandment in 1993, the festival orchestra consisted primarily of musicians from Switzerland. A few years later, a reconstituted festival orchestra arose, based around players from the
Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester
Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (GMJO) is a youth orchestra based in Vienna, Austria, founded in 1986 by conductor Claudio Abbado, and named after Gustav Mahler. It is an associated member of the European Federation of National Youth Orchestras.
...
and the European Community Youth Orchestra (now the
European Union Youth Orchestra
The European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) is a youth orchestra with members drawn from the 27 members states of the European Union. Since its foundation in 1976, it has connected music colleges and the professional music world for generations o ...
).
The most recent incarnation of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra occurred at the instigation of
Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado (; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony ...
(1933–2014), after a 2000 conversation with Lucerne Festival artistic director Michael Haefliger. The core of the ensemble is the
Mahler Chamber Orchestra
The Mahler Chamber Orchestra is a professional touring chamber orchestra founded by Claudio Abbado and former members of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in 1997.
The MCO appears throughout the year in about 60–70 concerts and performances. It ...
. The LFO features some soloists and orchestral principals from major orchestras in its ranks, including Kolja Blacher, Wolfram Christ,
Mirijam Contzen,
Diemut Poppen
Diemut Poppen (born in Münster, Germany) is a German musician.
She began violin lessons at the age of seven, but changed to the viola having been exposed to it through playing chamber music. She has been taught by leading players such as Kim K ...
,
Natalia Gutman
Natalia Grigoryevna Gutman (russian: Наталья Григорьевна Гутман) (born 14 November 1942 in Kazan), PAU, is a Russian cellist. She began to study cello at the Moscow Music School with R. Sapozhnikov. She was later admitted t ...
, Jens-Peter Maintz,
Jacques Zoon
Jacques Zoon (pronounced: ; born 1961 in Heiloo, North Holland) is a Dutch flutist.
Education
Following a gymnasium education in Alkmaar, Zoon studied flute at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam with Koos Verheul and Harrie Starreveld, gr ...
,
Reinhold Friedrich
Reinhold Friedrich (born 14 July 1958) is a German trumpeter and university lecturer in Karlsruhe.
Career
Born in Weingarten, Friedrich was from 1983 to 1999 Solo trumpeter at the Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt. In 1986 he was awarded a pr ...
,
Stefan Dohr
Stefan Dohr (born September 3, 1965 in Münster) is a German horn player and currently the principal horn of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Berliner Philharmoniker). Apart from being a sought-after masterclass teacher, he teaches the horn at t ...
, Alessio Allegrini,
Mark Templeton, Franz Bartolomey, Alois Posch,
Emmanuel Pahud
Emmanuel Pahud (born 27 January 1970) is a Franco-Swiss flautist.
He was born in Geneva, Switzerland. His father is of French and Swiss background and his mother is French. The Berlin-based flutistPatrick LamEmmanuel Pahud – The showcase behi ...
,
Albrecht Mayer
Albrecht Mayer (born 3 June 1965) is a German classical oboist and conductor. The principal oboist of the Berlin Philharmonic, he is internationally known as a soloist and chamber musician and has made many recordings.
Biography
Born in Erlangen, ...
, Stefan Schweigert, members of the
Sabine Meyer
Sabine Meyer (born 30 March 1959) is a German classical clarinetist.
Biography
Born in Crailsheim, Baden-Württemberg, Meyer began playing the clarinet at an early age. Her first teacher was her father, also a clarinetist. She studied with Otto ...
Wind Ensemble, the
Alban Berg Quartet
The Alban Berg Quartett was a string quartet founded in Vienna, Austria in 1970, named after Alban Berg.
Members
Beginnings
The Berg Quartet was founded in 1970 by four young professors of the Vienna Academy of Music, and made its debut in ...
and
Hagen Quartet
The Hagen Quartet is an Austrian string quartet founded in 1981 by four siblings, Lukas, Angelika (first replaced by Annette Bik, who was then replaced by Rainer Schmidt in 1987), Veronika and Clemens, in Salzburg.
The quartet members are teach ...
. The orchestra also includes members of ensembles with whom Abbado had a connection, such as the
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
The Berlin Philharmonic (german: Berliner Philharmoniker, links=no, italic=no) is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world.
History
The Berlin Philharmonic was fo ...
, the
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...
and the
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
The Vienna Philharmonic (VPO; german: Wiener Philharmoniker, links=no) is an orchestra that was founded in 1842 and is considered to be one of the finest in the world.
The Vienna Philharmonic is based at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. Its ...
.
Abbado hand-picked each member of the orchestra, and the musicians assemble at the beginning of each August in
Lucerne
Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic German, High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking po ...
for a total of three weeks together, with 10 days of rehearsals. Then, the orchestra performs the opening concerts of the festival. One overriding philosophy that Abbado emphasized was for the musicians to listen to each other, as in chamber music, but in the context of a full orchestral ensemble. In the string sections, the section leaders assign the seating, after discussion with Abbado. Rehearsals commence with individual instrument sections before the entire ensemble collects with Abbado.
Abbado led the first performances of the newest Lucerne Festival Orchestra at the 2003 festival. Their first residency abroad in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
was in the autumn of 2005. October 2006 brought their first overseas guest performance, which gave a concert in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
at
Suntory Hall
The is a concert venue in the central Akasaka district of Tokyo, Japan. Part of the Ark Hills complex, it consists of a main concert hall, widely considered one of the finest in the world for its acoustics — indeed Herbert von Karajan called i ...
. The orchestra made its first
Proms
The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...
debut in August 2007, with
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...
's
Symphony No. 3. Abbado and the orchestra were scheduled to appear in the US for the first time, at
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, in October 2007.
However, in September 2007, Abbado announced that he had to withdraw from these scheduled New York concerts because of health concerns. The orchestra performed these concerts with substitute conductors
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music.
Born in Mont ...
and
David Robertson. For the 2014 Lucerne Festival,
Andris Nelsons
Andris Nelsons (born 18 November 1978) is a Latvian conductor who is currently the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the ''Gewandhauskapellmeister'' of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He has previously served as music dire ...
conducted the festival orchestra's concert as the replacement for Claudio Abbado, who died in January 2014.
In August 2015, the Lucerne Festival announced the appointment of
Riccardo Chailly
Riccardo Chailly (, ; born 20 February 1953) is an Italian conductor. He is currently music director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, since 2016, and music director of La Scala, since 2017. Prior to this, he held chief conducting positions ...
as its next music director, effective with the 2016 Lucerne Festival, with an initial contract of 5 years. In February 2021, the orchestra announced an extension of Chailly's contract as music director through 2026.
Selected discography
CDs
*
Claude Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...
: ''
La Mer'',
Mahler
Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...
:
Symphony No. 2 (
Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...
)
*
Anton Bruckner
Josef Anton Bruckner (; 4 September 182411 October 1896) was an Austrian composer, organist, and music theorist best known for his symphonies, masses, Te Deum and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-Germ ...
:
Symphony No. 9
DVDs
*
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...
:
** Symphony
No. 2 (with the
Orfeón Donostiarra
The Orfeón Donostiarra is a concert choir based in San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain.
History
The choir was formed in 1897 in San Sebastián. The first music directors were Miguel Oñate, Luzuriaga and Esnaola. In June 1906 the group was a ...
, Eteri Gvazava and Anna Larsson)
**
No. 3
''No. 3'' () is a 1997 Koreans, South Korean Kkangpae, gangster comedy film starring Han Suk-kyu as the titular no. 3 man of a gang who's aspiring to rise up the ranks and become the leader of his own gang. It was writer-director Song Nung-han's ...
**
No. 5
**
No. 6
''No. 6'' is a Japanese novel series written by Atsuko Asano and published by Kodansha in nine volumes between October 2003 and June 2011. A manga adaptation drawn by Hinoki Kino was serialized in Kodansha's ''Aria'' magazine from January 201 ...
**
No. 7
** Symphony No. 9
* Claude Debussy: ''La Mer''
References
External links
Lucerne Festival Orchestra(Official website)
{{Authority control
Swiss orchestras
Symphony orchestras
Lucerne Festival
Musical groups established in 2003
2003 establishments in Switzerland