LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA holds residency in Peking from 20 to 25 September 2009

Thirty-six years after his first visit, Claudio Abbado's return to Peking for the sold-out opening concert of the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA on 20 September was a stunning success. In 1973 the Maestro toured Peking with the Vienna Philharmonic – one of the very first guest performances by a western orchestra in the People's Republic of China.

Located in the heart of Peking, the new National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) welcomed some 9000 visitors to the orchestra's six concerts, including an impressive number of children and teenagers and an average booking rate of 92 percent. Each concert ended in storms of applause and minutes on end of standing ovations. Owing to the preparations for the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the People's Republic, the traffic congestion was enormous, and some of the musicians courageously grabbed bicycles to reach the concert hall in time. Many others, including Maestro Abbado, travelled by underground.

Especially impressive was the quiet and concentrated atmosphere of the concerts: ‘I must roundly contradict all those prejudices that Chinese audiences are loud and undisciplined’, says the Festival's executive and artistic director Michael Haefliger. ‘Quite the contrary: I've rarely seen such inquisitive and inwardly focused listeners – young and old – in a concert hall. We're all overwhelmed and convinced of the interest and potential of this audience, not least for our festival in Lucerne.’

As before in Lucerne, the main emphasis of the two symphonic programmes fell on Gustav Mahler with his First and Fourth Symphonies, along with Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto performed by the young Chinese pianist Yuja Wang. The Swiss soprano Rachel Harnisch sang the solo part in Mahler's Fourth and several Mozart arias. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra, conducted by the Chinese composer Tan Dun, presented an intercultural programme with works by Haydn, Mozart (with soloists Kolja Blacher and Wolfram Christ) and Takemitsu. After the interval Tan Dun himself conducted the Chinese première of his Earth Concerto. The residence opened with a chamber music recital performed by soloists from the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA.

Founded in 2003 in Lucerne by Claudio Abbado and Michael Haefliger, the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA has previously made guest appearances in Rome (2005), Tokyo (2006), the London BBC Proms and New York (2007) and Vienna (2008). This was its sixth foreign residency. Further guest performances are currently being planned, including one in Madrid in autumn 2010.

Photos of the residency can be found in our photo gallery.

The chinese website about the residency