The Festival Strings Lucerne, which were founded in 1956 by Rudolf Baumgartner and Wolfgang Schneiderhan, are associated with LUCERNE FESTIVAL through yearly performances. The regular ensemble, which is led by concertmaster and artistic director Daniel Dodds, comprises 17 string soloists and a harpsichord player, but it can be expanded up to a 60-member orchestra that also performs the symphonic repertoire. The special sound culture of the “Strings” is attributable on the one hand to the master instruments from the legendary Cremonese workshops of Stradivari, Guarneri, and Amati that are in the possession of the ensemble, and on the other to their great performance tradition. From the very beginning, collaboration with prominent soloists has shaped the ensemble’s profile. Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrach, Pablo Casals, Wilhelm Kempff, and Clara Haskil have performed in their concerts, and such stars of today as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Mischa Maisky, Hélène Grimaud, Daniil Trifonov, and Renaud and Gautier Capuçon are among their musical partners. In the 2016-17 season, the Festival Strings Lucerne concertized with such figures as Nicolas Altstaedt, Vilde Frang, Sergei Nakariakov, Julian Rachlin, and Arabella Steinbacher. They have toured in recent seasons to the United States and to South America, Japan, South Korea, China, and Russia. In the summer of 2017 the Strings performed at the new Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg (the first Swiss orchestra to do so) and toured to the Würzburg Mozartfest and to the Rheingau Musik Festival. Their repertoire ranges from the Baroque to contemporary music; in January 2017 they released a two-part homage to Sofia Gubaidulina. The ensemble regularly releases recordings, the most recent of which is an account of three Mozart violin concertos with Arabella Steinbacher. 

LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on 26 August 1956 in a program of works by Corelli, Purcell, Bach, and Pergolesi.

April 2017