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 soloists and orchestral principals from major orchestras 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. [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] 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. [9] 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. [10] [11] [12]. 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. [13] [14] The orchestra performed these concerts with substitute conductors Pierre Boulez and David Robertson. [15] [16] [17] [18]

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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) ^[19].

DVD

• Gustav Mahler's Symphonies No. 2 (with the Orfeón Donostiarra, Eteri Gvazava and Anna Larsson) ^[20], No. 3, No. 5, No. 6, and No. 7 and Claude Debussy's La Mer
• Lucerne Festival Orchestra's documentaries.

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. Not Just Another Pickup Band
10. Lucerne Festival Orchestra/Abbado (review of Prom 51, 2007)
11. Proms: Lucerne FO/Abbado
12. Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Royal Albert Hall, London
13. Conductor Claudio Abbado Withdraws from Carnegie Hall Season Openers Next Month
14. Abbado, Ill, Cancels Appearances
15. Boulez Replaces Abbado for Lucerne Festival Orchestra's Third Carnegie Hall Concert
16. David Robertson Replaces Claudio Abbado for Carnegie Hall's Season Openers
17. Orchestra Adjusts to Guest Baton
18. Be Meticulous With Mahler, and Sentiment Will Follow
19. Mahler: Symphony No 2; Debussy: La Mer: Gvazava/ Larsson/ Orfeon Donostiarra/ Lucerne Festival Orchestra/ Abbado
20. Claudio Abbado - Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 2