Festival Strings Lucerne
The Lucerne Festival Strings are among Switzerland's best-known orchestral ensembles, touring widely and performing a wide variety of repertory. The group is especially noted for its large catalog of recordings, which dates back to the 1950s and includes pioneering releases of Baroque music.
The Lucerne Festival Strings was founded in 1956 and gave its first performance at the Lucerne International Music Festival on August 26 of that year. The group's co-founders were conductor Rudolf Baumgartner, violinist Wolfgang Schneiderhan, and Lucerne Festival director Walter Strebi. Baumgartner, who remained the music director until 1998, named the group and, envisioning a busy touring schedule for the new ensemble, suggested that it always use the English words Festival Strings, altering only the word order (Festival Strings Lucerne) for French- and German-speaking audiences. At home, the group has maintained a close relationship with the Lucerne Conservatory and performs at the KKL Lucerne Concert Hall.
The Lucerne Festival Strings programmed mostly Baroque music in its early years, not a common thing in the 1950s, but it later added contemporary music to its mission and has premiered more than 100 works, including those by Frank Martin, Iannis Xenakis, and Krzysztof Penderecki. Almost from the beginning, the group attracted international-caliber soloists, including violinist David Oistrakh, cellist Pablo Casals, and pianist Clara Haskil. With a core of 21 musicians, the orchestra takes on additional players for larger works, and since the 2010s, it has often performed symphonic repertory. It should not be confused with the seasonal Lucerne Festival Orchestra, to which it is unrelated. The Lucerne Festival Strings has had only three directors over its long history; Baumgartner was succeeded by Achim Fiedler, and violinist-conductor Daniel Dodds took up the baton in 2012.
The Lucerne Festival Strings' notably vast catalog of recordings, dating back to the 1950s, includes early LPs featured Baroque music that appeared on the Deutsche Grammophon label's Archiv imprint, which had a pioneering role in the marketing of Baroque music recordings. In the digital era, the group has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, RCA, and, as of 2020, Warner Classics, where the Lucerne Festival Strings backed violinist Midori in her first-ever recording of Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Bach: Klavierkonzerte
Martin Stadtfeld, Festival Strings Lucerne, Achim Fiedler
Klassik - Erschienen bei Sony Classical am 02.03.2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Weihnachtskonzerte
Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Eduard Kaufmann, Festival Strings Lucerne, Rudolf Baumgartner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Deutsche Grammophon (DG) am 01.01.2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Yang Jing: Works for String Quartet and Pipa
Yang Jing, Festival Strings Lucerne
Klassik - Erschienen bei NEOS Music am 26.01.2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Finest Recordings - Bach's Brandenburg Concertos No. 2, 3, And 4 with the Orchestra Suite No. 3
Festival Strings Lucerne, Orchestre -Bach de Munich
Kammermusik - Erschienen bei MD Digital Classical PD am 20.02.2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Harpsichord Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 (Stereo Version)
Festival Strings Lucerne, Rudolf Baumgartner, Ralph Kirkpatrick
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: Brandenburg Concerto No.1 BWV 1046; No.5 BWV 1050 & No.6 BWV 1051
Festival Strings Lucerne, Rudolf Baumgartner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Deutsche Grammophon (DG) am 01.01.1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
VII. Menuetto
Festival Strings Lucerne, Daniel Dodds
Klassik - Erschienen bei Sony Classical - Sony Music am 26.08.2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Das italienische Settecento: Serie A. Das Konzert (Stereo Version)
Enrico Mainardi, Rudolf Baumgartner, Festival Strings Lucerne
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1900
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
IV. Nicht schnell
Festival Strings Lucerne, Daniel Dodds
Klassik - Erschienen bei Sony Classical - Sony Music am 16.02.2024
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Abendlied, Op. 85, No. 12 (Arr. for String Orchestra by Johan Svendsen)
Festival Strings Lucerne, Daniel Dodds
Klassik - Erschienen bei Sony Classical - Sony Music am 01.03.2024
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Harpsichord Concerto No. 5 (Stereo Version)
Ralph Kirkpatrick, Rudolf Baumgartner, Festival Strings Lucerne
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1900
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Cantate, BWV 202 - Respighi: Il tramonto - Mozart: Divertimento in F Major, K. 138 (Stereo Version)
Festival Strings Lucerne, Rudolf Baumgartner, Irmgard Seefried
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Gerusalemme liberata: Armonia con Capriccio a Violino Solo
Festival Strings Lucerne, Daniel Dodds
Klassik - Erschienen bei Sony Classical - Sony Music am 09.09.2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Das Schaffen Johann Sebastian Bachs: Serie K. Instrumentalkonzerte (Mono Version)
Rudolf Baumgartner, Festival Strings Lucerne
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1961
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Concerto brandebourgeois No. 3 (Stereo Version)
Rudolf Baumgartner, Festival Strings Lucerne
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1900
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Concerto brandebourgeois No. 2 (Stereo Version)
Rudolf Baumgartner, Festival Strings Lucerne
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1900
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Urs Joseph Flury: Concertino venetiano, Violinkonzert in D, Sonate für Violine solo & Suite nostalgique für Violine und Klavier
Urs Joseph Flury, Festival Strings Lucerne, Kammerensemble von Radio Bern
Instrumentalmusik - Erschienen bei VDE-GALLO am 16.02.2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos, No. 2, No. 3 & No. 4 & Overture (Suite) No. 3
Instrumentalmusik - Erschienen bei MVE am 12.02.2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Telemann: Konzert für Viola, TWV 51:G9 & Ouverture-Suite, TWV 55:G10, "Burlesque de Quichotte"
Festival Strings Lucerne, Ulrich Koch Rudolf Baumbartner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Classic Style am 13.12.2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Concerto Brandebourgeois No. 2 (Mono Version)
Rudolf Baumgartner, Festival Strings Lucerne
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1961
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo