Claudio Abbado - Lucerne Festival Orchestra - BLU-RAY

All are equal before the work, before the mysteries of a score; this was Claudio Abbado's heart-felt conviction. For him, the willingness to be open to one another and to the independent life of musical processes was the only prerequisite for making music. In the live performances documented here for the first time, Abbado could be sure of the devotion of these world-class artists the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA, the sopranos Christine Schäfer and Juliane Banse, as well as the actor Bruno Ganz. They shared his credo of Inchlistening togethernessInch (Die ZEIT) that made possible those precious moments of musical truth toward which this great conductor strove throughout his life.

Abbado's approach to the music of Bruckner is soft and songlike, at times tense and urgent, but constantly filled with warmth of feelingInch - not only the Neue Zurcher Zeitung is full of praise when Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra play Bruckner. Their interpretation of his awe-inspiring Fifth Symphony reflects the composer's burgeoning powers and exquisite compositional artistry. As the Guardian poetically states InchThe composer himself, one suspects, might have leapt to embrace Abbado as an ideal interpreter.

In 2024, Riccardo Chailly and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra continued their acclaimed Rachmaninoff cycle with a concert spanning the composer's lifetime from the youthful freshness of the composer's earliest works like the rarely performed InchYouth SymphonyInch and his Piano Concerto No. 1, to the musical mastery and maturity of his last major work, the InchSymphonic DancesInch. Young piano prodigy Alexander Malofeev, in whose repertoire Rachmaninoff's music occupies a special place, gave his much-lauded Lucerne Festival debut as the soloist of the evening with an electrifying performance.