Spring-Festival: Lucerne Festival Orchestra 2

For the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and its Music Director Riccardo Chailly, Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony may well be the most demanding of them all. It opens with a mysterious introduction that already seems to leap forward into the realm of Romanticism before exploding into a whirlwind of unstoppable energy. The furious whirl of 16th notes that Beethoven unleashes can make even top-notch orchestras break a sweat — but the Lucerne Festival Orchestra inhabits a class of its own. The concert will begin with something truly unique, as 30-year-old Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, a native of Vienna who traces his heritage to Armenia, performs Mendelssohn’s radiant Violin Concerto. Tjeknavorian has devoted himself increasingly to conducting in recent years, earning Italy’s highly prestigious Premio Abbiati from that nation’s critics. Yet it was as a brilliant violin virtuoso that he initially made his name, garnering praise as the recipient of numerous international awards. For Riccardo Chailly — and for him alone — he now takes up his violin once again. “I am simply an artist who makes music,” Tjeknavorian says of himself.