The grand finale of this year’s LUCERNE FESTIVAL at Easter showcases the Bavarian Radio (BR) Symphony Orchestra. These musicians from Munich will preside over four performances that promise to bring the festival to a brilliant conclusion.

Anton Bruckner is the guiding light of this year's residency by the BR Symphony Orchestra. On Saturday, March 27, the ensemble will perform his Fifth Symphony under Bernard Haitink, the 81-year-old grand master of Bruckner interpretation. The very next day will feature a Sunday matinee performance of the great Mass No. 3 in F minor, with Daniel Harding at the podium. Only 35, this young maestro can be considered the standard bearer of the youthful generation. As for the focus on Bruckner, we turn to Bernard Haitink's observations in the program book: "The elemental power of this music should not be confused with mere loudness: A performance of Bruckner must never become overwhelming in volume: rather, the sound needs to be fully rounded. With almost every orchestra I conduct I find myself pleading, "Please! I really want to hear the strings as well–not just the trumpets and trombones!" Haitink aims for transparency and reveals the architecture of this monumental symphony, with its magnificent structural span. According to the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", in its review of his performance of the work in Munich on February 16, Haitink achieves something that sounds "quite unlike a medieval cathedral but rather like a wonderfully light-flooded, richly ornamented baroque church:  transparent unity through all its manifold variety."
The four trombonists of the BR-Symphony Orchestra will also participate in a "Postlude" following the performance of the Fifth Symphony: Shortly after, at 9:00 p.m., the audience is invited to join them for a concert at the Franziskanerkirche. They will alternate and also collaborate with Lucerne-based organist Franz Schaffner in a program ranging over four centuries, from Renaissance dances and the Venetian baroque to the jazzy sounds of Polish composer Kazimierz Serocki. And Anton Bruckner will of course be on the menu as well.
You can always count on the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra to be an enthusiastic supporter of fresh ideas–and new audiences.  On Saturday morning, for example, Daniel Harding will open up the rehearsal for a "Children's Corner" and present the opening work of the concert (Beethoven's Grosse Fuge, Op. 133) to a select group of school students. There will of course be opportunities afterward for conversations with the musicians.