麻豆社

Claudio Abbado: the final concerts.
Louise Fryer presents recordings made at the late conductor's final appearances at last summer's Lucerne Festival. Claudio Abbado's work with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra represented the zenith of the great maestro's life in music. Formed ten years ago, and performing a mere handful of concerts a year, the orchestra brought together many leading soloists, chamber musicians and principal players from the world's elite orchestras alongside a hand-picked assembly of young musicans from the many youth projects with which Claudio Abbado has been so intimately involved over the past thirty years. But, even by the Lucerne Festival Orchestra's own exalted standards, these final two concert programmes saw performances which soared to new heights. As one reviewer put it: "Abbado's concerts weren't mere performances of pieces of music, they were searing, transformative existential journeys. That they have come to an end is an unimaginable loss."

Brahms Tragic Overture in D minor, op. 81
Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Claudio Abbado (conductor)

Schoenberg Orchestral Interlude and Song of the Wood Dove, from Gurrelieder
Mihoko Fujimura (mezzo-soprano),
Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Claudio Abbado (conductor)

c. 2.30pm
Schubert Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759 ('Unfinished')
Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Claudio Abbado (conductor)

c. 3.00pm
Bruckner Symphony No. 9 in D minor, WAB 109
Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Claudio Abbado (conductor).