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A summer of festivals continues with Lucerne 2023
4/8/2023
Eight of our artists head to Switzerland for the Lucerne Festival this summer, one of the leading international festivals in the world of classical music
Paavo Järvi replaces an indisposed Riccardo Chailly conducting the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No.3 on 11 August (soloist Wiebke Lehmkuhl) and in a Mozart and Brahms programme on 12 August (soloist Maria João Pires).
![Paavo Jarvi © Kaupo Kikkas](/https/www.harrisonparrott.com/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_small/public/images/2021-10/Paavo-Jarvi_credit_Kaupo-Kikkas-1-1-scaled.jpeg?h=7eabb7da&itok=xCi6AEcv)
On 14 August, Víkingur Ólafsson performs Bach’s Goldberg Variations as part of the 2023 Lucerne Festival. This marks Ólafsson’s fifth recital in his 2023/24 season Goldberg Variations world tour.
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On 22 August, Kent Nagano conducts Dresden Festival Orchestra and Concerto Köln as they perform Wagner’s Das Rheingold.
![Kent Nagano Photo Antoine Saito](/https/www.harrisonparrott.com/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_small/public/images/2019-01/9f-symphonie-de-beethoven-1-juin-2018-photo-antoine-saito010-r1.jpg?h=c8f7657f&itok=k9ENoN5A)
Klaus Mäkelä makes his debut at the Lucerne Festival.
On 24 August, Klaus and Oslo Philharmonic bring a programme composed of Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, Sibelius’ Symphony No.7 and Mahler’s Symphony No.4 with soprano Johanna Wallroth, who also debuts at the festival.
On 25 August, Klaus and the orchestra perform Tchaikovsky’s The Tempest, Op.18, Le Poème de l’Extase composed by Scriabin, and they welcome frequent collaborator Yuja Wang who performs Ravel’s Piano Concerto in D major for the Left Hand and his Piano Concerto in G.
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Carlos Simon receives his Lucerne Festival debut on 28 August with Four Black American Dances, commissioned and performed by Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons. The piece, which highlights dances significant to the African-American experience, opens a programme at KKL Luzern that also features Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Saint-Saëns’ Egyptian Concert piano concerto, performed by Jean-Yves Thibaudet.
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On 3 September, Jörg Widmann’s new viola concerto The Last Rose of Summer, commissioned by Lucerne Festival, has its world premiere performed by Wolfram Christ and Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto. The work is dedicated to Wolfram Christ, who concludes his soloist career with this concert. According to the composer, it reflects “the melancholy and pain of irretrievability of the moment on the one hand, and the confluence of beautiful musical memories on the other. Wolfram Christ is symbolically presented with a rose for the last time, in respect and gratitude for his lifelong artistic work on his instrument, the viola.” Another work by Jörg Widmann, Air for solo horn, is performed by Ben Goldscheider on 5 September.
![Jörg Widmann © Marco Borggreve](/https/www.harrisonparrott.com/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_small/public/images/2020-02/Jo%CC%88rg%20Widmann010%20%28c%29%20Marco%20Borggreve.jpg?h=523ae344&itok=LxOxc01y)