Lucerne Festival Orchestra to share spirit of music with Shanghai

The Lucerne Festival Orchestra is playing in the city till October 22 as part of the 20th China Shanghai International Arts Festival.

The Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Chailly, will perform four concerts, three of them at Shanghai Symphony Hall and one at Shanghai Gonqing Forest Park.

The ensemble plan to play the same set they presented at the Lucerne Festival in August, including a series of Ravel’s works, Stravinsky’s “Firebird,” Wagner’s “Rienzi” and “The Flying Dutchman” overtures, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.24 and Bruckner’s Symphony No.7.

“There are two important elements for Lucerne Festival in Shanghai. One is the unique quality of the musicians we have and the other is the joy of making music together,” said Riccardo Chailly, music director of Lucerne Festival Orchestra.

Established by Claudio Abbado in 2003, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra is a seasonal ensemble, whose members come from all over Europe. Each summer they get together to perform in their spare time. The spirit of making music together has always been with the orchestra since its birth and the members are excited about sharing it with Shanghai this time.

“The base of art is to exchange,” said Michael Haefliger, executive director of Lucerne Festival. “We will have a whole week here meet people in and out of the concerts. We are more than happy to share our music and spirit with music lovers in this incredible urban space, and also probably hear from the Shanghai audiences’ view on our music, which may probably inspire us better.”

Every summer with Lucerne Festival Orchestra is quite like a summer vacation full of youth spirit, according to trombonist Jorgen van Rijen of Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam.
“I believe that audiences will feel that too at our concert,” said Rijen.

Info

Date: till October 22, 8pm

Venue: Shanghai Symphony Hall

Address: 1380 Fuxing Rd. M

Tickets: 80-1680 yuan

Tel: 4008-210-522