Midori and Dohr perform Staud and Rihm in Lucerne

Lucerne Festival

Almost 20 works from the UE catalogue will be performed at this year’s Lucerne Festival (15 August until 14 September), among them four world premières and three Swiss premières.

“Artiste étoile” Midori will introduce the new violin concerto Oskar (Towards a Brighter Hue II) by composer-in-residence Johannes Maria Staud, whose opera Die Antilope will also be premièred at festival (libretto: Durs Grünbein).

Wolfgang Rihm had long toyed with the notion of writing a Horn Concerto for Stefan Dohr, the principal horn player with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. While György Ligeti’s Horn Concerto makes use of further horns in the orchestra, Rihm chooses to do without, instead giving the soloist lines of exceptional cantabile appeal and rooted in an astonishing colour palette, without allowing the underlying virtuosity to become strikingly visible. A new repertoire piece in the making!

The following national and Swiss premières from the Universal Edition catalogue will be performed at the Lucerne Festival:

Johannes Maria Staud: Der Riß durch den Tag
for speaker and ensemble | 25'
prem. 17.08.2014, KKL Luzern; Robert Hunger-Bühler, speaker; Ensemble Intercontemporain, cond. Matthias Pintscher

Wolfgang Rihm: Horn Concerto
for horn and orchestra | 20'
world prem. 19.08.2014, KKL Luzern; Stefan Dohr, hn; Mahler Chamber Orchestra, cond. Daniel Harding

Johannes Maria Staud: Oskar (Towards a Brighter Hue II)
for violin solo, string orchestra and percussion | 18'
world prem. 27.08.2014, KKL Luzern; Midori, vln; Luzerner SO, cond. James Gaffigan

Johannes Maria Staud: Incipit III (Esquisse retouchée II)
for trombone solo, string orchestra, 2 horns and percussion | 13'
prem. 27.08.2014, KKL Luzern; soloists and orchestra of the Lucerne Festival Academy, cond. Johannes Maria Staud

Johannes Maria Staud: Die Antilope
opera | 75'
world prem. 03.09.2014, Luzerner Theater; Chor und Solisten des Luzerner Theaters; Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, cond. Howard Arman; directed by Dominique Mentha
further performances: 05., 07., 21., 24., and 27.09.2014; 23. and 26.10.2014

Johannes Maria Staud: Zimt
world premiere of the complete version, consisting of On Comparative Meteorology and Contrebande (On Comparative Meteorology II)
for orchestra | 35'
world prem. 06.09.2014, KKL Luzern; Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, cond. Matthias Pintscher

Friedrich Cerha: Paraphrase über den Anfang der 9. Symphonie von Beethoven
for orchestra | 14'
prem. 07.09.2014, KKL Luzern; Gewandhausorchester, cond. Riccardo Chailly