A Remarkable Anniversary: Heinz Holliger

Few musicians can match a record like this: Heinz Holliger’s association with Lucerne Festival now spans 65 years. He marks this milestone on 22 November at Lucerne Festival Forward by conducting the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO).

Born just a year after the Festival was founded, Holliger first appeared here in the summer of 1961, when he was only 22 – and in two roles at once. He was principal oboist of the Swiss Festival Orchestra, remaining a member until 1970 and later conducting the ensemble himself in 1991 and 1993, while also appearing as a soloist with the Festival Strings Lucerne.

He has been a fixture at the Festival ever since, making his mark over the past six and a half decades in many different ways: as an oboist and conductor, working with ensembles including the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and the orchestras of SWR; as a regular guest of the Lucerne Festival Academy, where he also led a conducting masterclass in 2014; and, of course, as a composer.

Holliger was composer-in-residence at the Summer Festival in 1998. His music has also remained a strong presence in Lucerne, with eleven world premieres in the past quarter-century alone and performances of major works including the Scardanelli-Zyklus and the violin concerto Hommage à Louis Soutter. At this year’s Forward Festival, audiences will hear Gesänge der Frühe, which draws on both Robert Schumann and Friedrich Hölderlin, two figures who have long held a central place in Holliger’s artistic world.

Holliger has also premiered numerous works by other composers in Lucerne, most of them written specifically for him. They range from the Passacaglia concertante by his teacher Sándor Veress, which he performed at his Festival debut in 1961, to solo works by Younghi Pagh-Paan and György Kurtág, which he presented at a concert celebrating his 80th birthday in 2019.

Warmest congratulations to Heinz Holliger on 65 years at Lucerne Festival!