8 August - 15 September 2012
Music – A Question of Faith?
LUCERNE FESTIVAL in Summer 2012 will focus on the theme of “Faith.” For centuries European composers wrote their works almost exclusively for the church, for liturgies, for holy feast days, for devotion—music that was meant to uplift. Even Johann Sebastian Bach declared that he created his music for the greater glory of God alone. But musicians thereafter began to follow a different path, directing their gaze no longer necessarily upward but rather inward. During the 19th century, music itself ultimately became a kind of religion. The concert hall developed into a temple of bourgeois art-worship, and composers came to be regarded as prophets, if not saints.
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