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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Mozart: Complete Violin Concertos
Arabella Steinbacher, Festival Strings Lucerne, Daniel Dodds
Concertos - Released by PENTATONE on Jan 21, 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Eastbound: Schumann, Dvorak, Schreker (Works for String Orchestra)
Classical - Released by Sony Classical - Sony Music on Mar 15, 2024
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Violin Concertos 1 & 2
Arabella Steinbacher, Festival Strings Lucerne, Daniel Dodds
Concertos - Released by PENTATONE on Jan 10, 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: Brandenburg Concertos Nos.2, 3 & 4; Orchestral Suite No.3, BWV 1068
Festival Strings Lucerne, Rudolf Baumgartner, Orchestre -Bach de Munich, Karl Richter
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on Jan 1, 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Violin Concertos 3, 4 & 5
Arabella Steinbacher, Festival Strings Lucerne, Daniel Dodds
Concertos - Released by PENTATONE on May 1, 2014
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos.13 & 20; Piano Sonata K. 280
Clara Haskil, Festival Strings Lucerne, RIAS Symphonie-Orchester, Ferenc Fricsay, Rudolf Baumgartner
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on Jan 1, 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
O virtus sapientiae (Arr. for Cello & Orchestra by Julian Riem)
Raphaela Gromes, Festival Strings Lucerne, Daniel Dodds
Classical - Released by Sony Classical - Sony Music on Oct 14, 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626: When I am Laid in Earth (Dido's Lament, Arr. for Cello & Orchestra by Julian Riem)
Raphaela Gromes, Festival Strings Lucerne, Daniel Dodds
Classical - Released by Sony Classical - Sony Music on Jan 6, 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Haffner-Serenade KV 250 & Marsch KV 249
Classical - Released by Sony Classical - Sony Music on Sep 23, 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Talestri: Da me ti dividi (Arr. for Cello & Orchestra by Julian Riem)
Raphaela Gromes, Festival Strings Lucerne, Daniel Dodds
Classical - Released by Sony Classical - Sony Music on Dec 2, 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: Concerti Op. 8 Nos. 1-4 "Le Quattro Stagioni"
Rudolf Baumgartner, Festival Strings Lucerne, Antonio Vivaldi
Classical - Released by Denon on Aug 27, 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Violin Concerto No.1 Bwv 1041 & No.2 Bwv 1042 & No.3 Bwv 1043
Régis Pasquier, Zino Francescatti, Festival Strings Lucerne, Rudolf Baumgartner
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on Jan 1, 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn / Boccherini: Cello Conertos
Mstislav Rostropovich, Collegium Musicum Zurich, Paul Sacher, Pierre Fournier, Festival Strings Lucerne, Rudolf Baumgartner
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on Jan 1, 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Purcell: Ode on St. Cecilia's Day; The Married Beau
Festival Strings Lucerne, Rudolf Baumgartner, English Chamber Orchestra, Charles Mackerras
Classical - Released by Archiv Produktion on Jan 1, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Christmas Concertos
Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Eduard Kaufmann, Festival Strings Lucerne, Rudolf Baumgartner
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on Jan 1, 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Suite for Cello and String Orchestra. II. Aria
Raphaela Gromes, Festival Strings Lucerne, Daniel Dodds
Classical - Released by Sony Classical - Sony Music on Jan 20, 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Baroque Festival
Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Claude Starck, Festival Strings Lucerne, Rudolf Baumgartner
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on Jan 1, 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Cantatas II
Festival Strings Lucerne, Orchestre -Bach de Munich, Rudolf Baumgartner, Karl Richter
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on Jan 1, 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Festival Strings Lucerne Great Recordings
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on Aug 22, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Yang Jing: Works for String Quartet and Pipa
Yang Jing, Festival Strings Lucerne
Classical - Released by NEOS Music on Jan 26, 2024
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
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on Jan 1, 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo