The Lucerne Festival Orchestra (LFO) has made a major return to Japan, 11 years after its last appearance with Claudio Abbado. The tour marks the first time that the LFO is on the road with its new music director Riccardo Chailly. The itinerary took them to Japan, South Korea, and China. In total, 8,800 concertgoers attended performances of the LFO in Japan, China and South Korea, where the orchestra was making its debut.
The Lucerne Festival Orchestra is an ensemble of first-class international soloists who approach the symphonic repertoire in a spirit of friendship and chamber-music-like enlightenment. It comprises 117 musicians from all over Europe. The idea goes back to Arturo Toscanini, who in 1938 convened acclaimed virtuosos of the time into an elite ensemble with the legendary “Concert de Gala.” It was 65 years later that the conductor Claudio Abbado and Festival Executive and Artistic Director Michael Haefliger founded the LFO, which made its public debut in August 2003. With Riccardo Chailly, this unique orchestra once again has an Italian music director.
In Japan, the tour started with two performances at Suntory Hall in Tokyo (October 6 and 7), followed by performances at MUZA Kawasaki Symphony Hall (October 8) and Kyoto Concert Hall (October 9). Two programs were performed: the first one with three orchestral pieces by Richard Strauss and the second featuring Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps – a signature work for Riccardo Chailly, who paired it with Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony and the Egmont Overture.
A major event for Swiss culture in Japan this year, the tour was supported by the Ambassador of Switzerland to Japan Jean-François Paroz who attended concerts in Tokyo and Kyoto. Ambassador Paroz organized several social gatherings attended by high-level guests such as H.I.H. Princess Takamado and Mr. Tadateru Konoe, President of the Japanese Red Cross Society and the Japan-Swiss Society.
In the run-up to the tour, some 16,500 people visited the Lucerne Festival Ark Nova, which was on site for the first time in Tokyo Midtown, between September 19 and October 4. Ark Nova is an inflatable and mobile concert hall conceived and realized by Michael Haefliger, music agent Masahide Kajimoto, designer Anish Kapoor and architect Arata Isozaki. It was designed to revitalize the cultural life of the Tohoku region in the aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster of March 2011. Before coming to Tokyo, Ark Nova has been in operation in Matsushima (2013), Sendai (2014) and Fukushima (2015). This year, a variety of short concerts by musicians from the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and the Lucerne Festival Alumni took place at the beginning of October.
