Lucerne Symphony Orchestra
Chief Conductor: James Gaffigan
206th season 2011/12
The Lucerne Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is the orchestra-in-residence of the KKL Luzern.
Switzerland’s oldest symphony orchestra, the LSO has won an international standing that extends far beyond its home base. Strongly anchored in Lucerne, a city with a worldwide reputation for music, the LSO presents a number of symphonic cycles. It also acts as the partner orchestra of the Lucerne Theatre, filling its musical needs.
In the 2011/12 season James Gaffigan will take up his position as Chief Conductor.
Distinguished conductors through the ages have tapped the richness of this flexible mid-sized, cosmopolitan ensemble and molded it around their artistic personalities. Recent incumbents have included Marcello Viotti, Olaf Henzold, Jonathan Nott, Christian Arming and John Axelrod.
The LSO was founded in 1806 and has, in its 200-year history, contributed significantly to Lucerne’s renown as a city of music. The orchestra takes full creative advantage of the dynamic between tradition and innovation, attacking the classical-romantic repertoire with unabashed curiosity and energy. The LSO’s focus on individual composers gives rise to creative cycles of their works, deepening audience appreciation of the music. In addition, the orchestra takes every opportunity to highlight the rarities of the repertoire, broadening the horizons of its eager public. The orchestra’s championing of contemporary music has long been welcomed by audiences. Recent commissions include works from composers such as Rodion Shchedrin, Sofia Gubaidulina, Fazil Say, Benjamin Yusupov, David Philip Hefti and Pascal Dusapin. In 2011/12 the orchestra will present a new symphonic cycle by Wolfgang Rihm commissioned by the orchestra and the Lucerne Festival.
The LSO’s concerts have long featured soloists of international renown – Julia Fischer, Hilary Hahn, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Gidon Kremer, Julian Rachlin, Vadim Repin, Arabella Steinbacher, Thomas Zehetmair, Martha Argerich, Piotr Anderszewski, Nicholas Angelich, Lang Lang, Fazil Say, Mischa Maisky, Truls Mørk, Myklos Perenyi, the Arditti Quartet and the Beaux Arts Trio, to name but a few.
Leading conductors of the day such as Michael Gielen, Neeme Järvi, Sir Neville Marriner, Leonard Slatkin, Matthias Bamert, Peter Eötvös, Yakov Kreizberg, Andris Nelsons, James Gaffigan, Vasily Petrenko and Tugan Sokhiev are invited to take the podium. For a number of years, former chief conductor Jonathan Nott has returned to the LSO as an annual guest: in the 2007/08 season, he and the orchestra launched “Beyond the Horizon – Project JN”.
The LSO itself was recently invited to perform in Paris (Théâtre des Champs Elysées), Hamburg (Laieszhalle) and London (Barbican Hall). The LSO also toured Japan in summer 2008 for the first time in its history, giving eleven concerts, with a debut performance in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. The 2010/11 season featured a number of other debuts at concert halls in Europe and China, including Antwerp, Milan, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and Lingotto Torino, as well as the great Performing Arts Center in Beijing.
The LSO’s growing international profile is attracting the interest of the CD market: it has recorded three CDs of works by Schreker, Bernstein, Weill, Krenek, Schönberg and Julius Bürger for UK-based Nimbus Records, works by Wolfgang Rihm for Austria’s Kairos label, Fazil Say’s Violin Concerto for Naïve Classique, and a new piece by Sofia Gubaidulina for BIS Records as well as the recently recorded DVD of Rodion Shechedrin performed by Martha Argerich and Mischa Maisky (World Premiere)