Afternoon Concert

Want to enjoy an hour or so of Festival atmosphere after Sunday brunch? The Festival Strings Lucerne are at your service. Their customary afternoon concert of 45 minutes offers the finest classical delicacies in an approachable and accessible way. Daniel Dodds, concertmaster of the orchestra, skillfully moderates and guides the audience through the pieces. This year’s program includes works from the Classical and late-Romantic periods. The buoyant overture from Mozart’s opera La finta giardiniera will get us in the mood, like a light appetizer, before we dive into a dreamy mystical world with Sibelius’s music about a mysterious swan swimming around Tuonela, the island of the dead. Then things become zesty again with a finale that Mozart composed as an extension to his overture to La finta giardiniera to make a complete symphony. This capstone to the work turns out to provide an ideal conclusion. But in keeping with the “Open End” Festival theme, the Festival Strings Lucerne go one better with Haydn’s Farewell Symphony. Without risking a spoiler alert, let’s just say it stages an unforgettable way of saying goodbye.

Tickets will be available from August 4 to 15 (from 9.00 to 11.00 and from 14.00 to 16.00) exclusively at the reception desk at the Stadthaus Luzern (Hirschengraben 17) — cash only.