Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra

One of the greatest conductor and orchestra combinations of our time is Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. Abbado has been forced to severely limit his conducting appearances in recent years due to medical problems but his authority on the podium just continues to grow. He has not held a permanent music director position since he resigned from the Berlin Philharmonic but he makes a few appearances every year with orchestras whose members gather just to work with him. The largest is the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. It includes many members of the Berlin Philharmonic but also soloists of the stature of cellist Natalia Gutman and clarinettist Sabine Meyer and members of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. It is a superb orchestra. Again this summer they will gather at the Lucerne Festival for several concerts with Abbado. In this 2008 video they perform excerpts from Stravinsky's Firebird Suite.

Paul E. Robinson