Riccardo Chailly and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra – Mahler’s Symphony No. 8

About this event

Mahler’s Eighth Symphony breaks the boundaries of the symphonic form in a world-embracing gesture. Riccardo Chailly is one of the most loyal champions of this work, and therefore it seemed appropriate in many ways that he chose it for his inaugural concert as Claudio Abbado’s successor and new music director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. The artistic statement was combined with a deeply personal conviction: it was envisaged as a “tribute to Claudio,” the highly esteemed friend and colleague to whom Chailly, as he has emphasized, owes a great deal. On 12 August 2016, Claudio Abbado’s unfinished Mahler cycle with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra was completed in a breathtaking performance of Mahler's Eighth, simultaneously heralding a new era in Lucerne.

Riccardo Chailly accentuates the dramatic character of Mahler’s Eight’s Symphony without neglecting the more emotional aspects in the second part. The performance is gripping from the first to the last bar, with choral singing of great fervour and a rich and detailed orchestral sound. - Pizzicato

Programme

1. Concert – approx. 92 min 

Repertoire

1. Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E flat major “Symphony of a Thousand”