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The 'Lucerne Festival Orchestra' is an ad hoc seasonal orchestra, based at the annual Lucerne Festival in Switzerland. The Lucerne Festival had featured a resident orchestra as far back as 1938, with Arturo Toscanini conducting the first concert of that ensemble.^[1] From 1943 until its disbandment in 1993, the festival orchestra consisted primarily of musicians from Switzerland. A few years later, a reconstituted festival orchestra arose, based around players from the Gustav Mahler-Jugend Orchester and the European Community Youth Orchestra (now the European Union Youth Orchestra).^[2]
The most recent incarnation of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra occurred at the instigation of Claudio Abbado, after a 2000 conversation with Lucerne Festival artistic director Michael Haefliger. The core of the ensemble is the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. The LFO features some of the world's foremost soloists in its ranks, including Kolja Blacher, Wolfram Christ, Mirijam Contzen, Diemut Poppen, Natalia Gutman, Jens-Peter Maintz, Jacques Zoon, Reinhold Friedrich, Alois Posch, members of the Sabine Meyer Wind Ensemble, the Alban Berg Quartet and Hagen Quartet. The orchestra includes members of ensembles with whom Abbado has a connection, such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.^{[3] [4]} Abbado is scheduled to remain as the orchestra's music director and chief conductor through 2010.^[5]
Abbado hand-picks each member of the orchestra, and the musicians assemble at the beginning of each August in Lucerne for a total of three weeks together, with 10 days of rehearsals. Then, he and the orchestra perform the opening concerts of the festival.^[6] One overriding philosophy that Abbado emphasizes is for the musicians to listen to each other, as in chamber music, but in the context of a full orchestral ensemble.^{[7] [8]}
Abbado led the first performances of the newest Lucerne Festival Orchestra at the 2003 festival. Their first residency abroad in Rome was in the autumn of 2005. October 2006 brought their first overseas guest performance, which gave a concert in Tokyo at Suntory Hall. The orchestra made its first Proms debut in August 2007, in a highly acclaimed performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 3.^{[9] [10] [11]}. Abbado and the orchestra were scheduled to appear in the US for the first time, at Carnegie Hall in New York City, in October 2007. However, in September 2007, Abbado announced that he had to withdraw from these scheduled New York concerts because of health concerns, but the orchestra is still scheduled to appear with another conductor.^{[12] [13]}
Abbado and the orchestra have made a number of acclaimed recordings in CD and DVD formats. These include:

★ Claude Debussy's ''La Mer'' and Mahler's Second Symphony (CD, Deutsche Grammophon)^[14].

★ Gustav Mahler's Symphonies No. 2, No. 5, No. 6, and No. 7 (DVD).

Contents

References

External link

References

1. Lucerne in the Sky with Diamonds
2. Palmer, Peter, "First Performances: Lucerne Festival" (January 1996). ''Tempo'' (New Ser.), 195: pp. 25-26.
3. Electrifying artistry: Lucerne Festival Orchestra
4. Lucerne Festival Orchestra/Abbado
5. Claudio Abbado Extends Tenure at Lucerne Festival Orchestra
6. Follow the leader
7. Lucerne FO/ Abbado Konzertsaal
8. The maestro
9. Lucerne Festival Orchestra/Abbado (review of Prom 51, 2007)
10. Proms: Lucerne FO/Abbado
11. Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Royal Albert Hall, London
12. Conductor Claudio Abbado Withdraws from Carnegie Hall Season Openers Next Month
13. Abbado, Ill, Cancels Appearances
14. Mahler: Symphony No 2; Debussy: La Mer: Gvazava/ Larsson/ Orfeon Donostiarra/ Lucerne Festival Orchestra/ Abbado

External link

Lucerne Festival Orchestra (Official website)