Lucerne Symphony Orchestra

204th season 2009/10

The Lucerne Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is the orchestra-in-residence of the KKL Luzern.

Switzerland’s oldest symphony orchestra, the LSO has gained an international standing that extends far beyond its home base. Strongly anchored in Lucerne, a city with a worldwide reputation for music, the LSO offers a number of symphonic cycles. It also acts as the partner orchestra of the Lucerne Theatre, serving the latter with its music needs.

Distinguished conductors down the ages have unlocked the full potential of this mid-sized, cosmopolitan and flexible ensemble and moulded 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, come to contribute significantly to Lucerne’s renown as a city of music. The orchestra knows how to take full creative advantage of that dynamic that exists between tradition and innovation, giving itself over to the classical-romantic repertoire with unabashed inquisitiveness: its focus on individual composers gives rise to cycles of their works and deepens audiences’ appreciation of their music. Moreover, its highlighting of repertory rarities does much to broaden horizons.

The orchestra’s championing of contemporary music has long been an accepted and welcome fact of life by audiences. It has, for instance, recently commissioned works from composers including Sofia Gubaidulina, Fazil Say, Benjamin Yusupov, David Philip Hefti, Pascal Dusapin and Wolfgang Rihm.

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, Sir Neville Marriner, Leonard Slatkin, Matthias Bamert, Peter Eötvös, Yakov Kreizberg, Andris Nelsons, Olari Elts, James Gaffigan, Vasily Petrenko and Tugan Sokhiev are regularly invited to take to the rostrum. Meanwhile, for a number of years now, former chief conductor Jonathan Nott has been returning to the LSO as an annual guest: in the 2007/08 season, he and the orchestra launched “Beyond the Horizon – Project JN”, a project which is destined to run for a number of years.

The LSO has itself recently been invited to perform in Dortmund, Luxembourg and Milan, as well as at the Munich Biennale and the Barbican in London. The LSO also toured Japan in summer 2008 for the first time in its history, giving eleven concerts including the debut performance in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. The 2009/10 season will be featuring a number of other debuts at concert halls around Europe, including the Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and Hamburg’s venerable Laeiszhalle. The LSO will also be guesting at Milan’s Sala Verdi for the fourth time.

Thanks to its adaptability, vitality and interpretational skills, the LSO has succeeded in establishing an autonomous identity for itself occupying a space between the big-hitting philharmonic orchestras of the world’s metropolises and specialist ensembles associated with a certain style.
   
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.