Lucerne Festival Orchestra

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.cite news | url=http://www.playbillarts.com/features/article/7005.html | title=Lucerne in the Sky with Diamonds | publisher="Playbill Arts" | author=Robert Hilferty | date=1 September 2007 | accessdate=2007-09-01] 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). [Palmer, Peter, "First Performances: Lucerne Festival" (January 1996). "Tempo" (New Ser.), 195: pp. 25-26.]

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 and orchestral principals in its ranks, including Kolja Blacher, Wolfram Christ, Mirijam Contzen, Diemut Poppen, Natalia Gutman, Jens-Peter Maintz, Jacques Zoon, Reinhold Friedrich, Stefan Dohr, Alessio Allegrini, Mark Templeton, Franz Bartolomey, Alois Posch, Emmanuel Pahud, Zoon Jacques, Albrecht Mayer, Stefan Schweigert, members of the Sabine Meyer Wind Ensemble, the Alban Berg Quartet and Hagen Quartet. The orchestra also 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. [cite news | url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/08/14/bmlucerne114.xml | title= Electrifying artistry: Lucerne Festival Orchestra | publisher="Telegraph" | author=Geoffrey Norris | date=14 August 2007 | accessdate=2007-08-31] [cite news | url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/critic/review/0,,1856380,00.html | title=Lucerne Festival Orchestra/Abbado | publisher="The Guardian" | author=Tom Service | date=23 August 2006 | accessdate=2007-08-31] Abbado is scheduled to remain as the orchestra's music director and chief conductor through 2010. [cite news | url=http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/1293.html | title=Claudio Abbado Extends Tenure at Lucerne Festival Orchestra | publisher="Playbill Arts" | author=Ben Mattison | date=1 February 2005 | accessdate=2007-09-01]

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. [cite news | url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/fridayreview/story/0,,1327019,00.html | title=Follow the leader | publisher="The Guardian" | author=Stephen Everson | date=15 October 2004 | accessdate=2007-08-31] 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. [cite news | url=http://music.guardian.co.uk/classical/livereviews/story/0,,2148331,00.html | title=Lucerne FO/ Abbado Konzertsaal | publisher="The Guardian" | author=Tom Service | date=14 August 2007 | accessdate=2007-08-31] [cite news | url=http://music.guardian.co.uk/proms2007/story/0,,2153754,00.html | title=The maestro | publisher="The Guardian" | author=Tom Service | date=22 August 2007 | accessdate=2007-08-31] In the string sections, the section leaders assign the seating, after discussion with Abbado. Rehearsals commence with individual instrument sections before the entire ensemble collects with Abbado. [cite news | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/arts/music/30waki.html?pagewanted=all | title=Not Just Another Pickup Band | publisher="New York Times" | author=Daniel J. Wakin | date=30 September 2007 | accessdate=2007-10-11]

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. [cite news | url=http://music.guardian.co.uk/proms2007/story/0,,2155410,00.html | title=Lucerne Festival Orchestra/Abbado (review of Prom 51, 2007) | publisher="The Guardian" | author=Andrew Clements | date=24 August 2007 | accessdate=2007-08-31] [cite news | url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/live_reviews/article2315132.ece | title=Proms: Lucerne FO/Abbado | publisher="The Times" | author=Richard Morrison | date=24 August 2007 | accessdate=2007-08-31] [cite news | url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3492dfce-51d8-11dc-8779-0000779fd2ac.html | title=Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Royal Albert Hall, London | publisher="Financial Times" | author=Richard Fairman | date=24 August 2007 | accessdate=2007-08-31] . 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. [cite news | url=http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/7025.html | title=Conductor Claudio Abbado Withdraws from Carnegie Hall Season Openers Next Month | publisher="Playbill Arts" | author=Matthew Westphal | date=6 September 2007 | accessdate=2007-09-07] [cite news | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/07/arts/music/07abba.html | title=Abbado, Ill, Cancels Appearances | publisher="New York Times" | author=Daniel J. Wakin | date=7 September 2007 | accessdate=2007-09-07] The orchestra performed these concerts with substitute conductors Pierre Boulez and David Robertson. [cite news | url=http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/7062.html | title=Boulez Replaces Abbado for Lucerne Festival Orchestra's Third Carnegie Hall Concert | publisher="Playbill Arts" | author=Matthew Westphal | date=14 September 2007 | accessdate=2007-09-15] [cite news | url=http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/7077.html | title=David Robertson Replaces Claudio Abbado for Carnegie Hall's Season Openers | publisher="Playbill Arts" | author=Matthew Westphal | date=18 September 2007 | accessdate=2007-09-19] [cite news | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/05/arts/music/05robe.html | title=Orchestra Adjusts to Guest Baton | publisher="New York Times" | author=Anthony Tommasini | date=5 October 2007 | accessdate=2007-10-11] [cite news | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/arts/music/08boul.html | title=Be Meticulous With Mahler, and Sentiment Will Follow | publisher="New York Times" | author=James R. Oestreich | date=8 October 2007 | accessdate=2007-10-11]

Recordings

Abbado and the orchestra have made a number of acclaimed recordings in CD and DVD formats. These include:

CD

* Claude Debussy's "La Mer" and Mahler's Second Symphony (Deutsche Grammophon) [cite news | url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/critic/review/0,,1332570,00.html | title=Mahler: Symphony No 2; Debussy: La Mer: Gvazava/ Larsson/ Orfeon Donostiarra/ Lucerne Festival Orchestra/ Abbado | publisher="The Guardian" | author=Andrew Clements | date=22 October 2004 | accessdate=2007-08-31] .

DVD

* Gustav Mahler's Symphonies No. 2, No. 3, No. 5, No. 6, and No. 7 and Claude Debussy's "La Mer"
*Lucerne Festival Orchestra's documentaries.

References

External links

* [http://e.lucernefestival.ch/page/content/index.asp?MenuID=2809&ID=2569&Menu=13&Item=8 Lucerne Festival Orchestra] (Official website)