When Claudio Abbado and Michael Haefliger founded the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA, which has opened the summer season every year since 2003, they established a link with the foundation of the Festival itself in 1938. At that time, Arturo Toscanini brought together an elite group of musicians to form a unique ensemble for his legendary “Concert de Gala.” With this model in mind, internationally renowned soloists join together once again in 2011, under the leadership of Claudio Abbado, to continue their Mahler cycle as well as to present works by Mozart, Brahms, Bruckner, and Wagner. Performing as principals are such musicians as violinists Kolja Blacher and Sebastian Breuninger, violists Wolfram Christ and Diemut Poppen, cellists Jens Peter Maintz, Rafael Rosenfeld, and Julian Steckel, and double bassist Alois Posch. Woodwind and brass players include flutist Jacques Zoon, clarinetist Sa-bine Meyer and her ensemble, horn players Bruno Schneider and Alessio Allegrini, trumpeter Reinhold Fried-rich, and trombone player Jörgen van Rijen. The core of the orchestra meanwhile is drawn from the approximately 40 members of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. In addition to the three major orchestral programs that the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA performs this summer, the musicians appear in chamber concerts and in an ensemble program in which the entire Hagen Quartet also collaborates. From the very beginning, the orchestra’s appearances have caused a sensation in the music world. Many performances have been broadcast on television and eventually released on DVD (the most recent of which is a recording of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony from last summer, which won the Diapason d’Or). The LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA has made guest appearances in Rome, Vienna, and Madrid as well as in New York, Tokyo, Beijing, and other cities. Performances in Baden-Baden, Paris, and London are planned for October 2011.
The LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA has performed every year since making its LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut in summer 2003.
August 2011