Summer-Festival: Lucerne Festival Orchestra 4

This ensemble is a true cult favorite. When the brass players of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra gather around trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich and trombonist Jörgen van Rijen to form a brass band, the atmosphere reaches fever pitch in no time at all. All the more so at this summer’s appearance, which is devoted to the theme of “American Dreams.” Gershwin's Strike Up the Band injects an irresistible jolt of swing and high spirits. And once the suite from Bernstein’s West Side Story kicks off, there’s simply no holding back. All the iconic numbers from this beloved score are included: the Mambo, Somewhere, and America, whose lyrics seem astonishingly topical: “Life can be bright in America / If you can fight in America. / Life is all right in America / If you’re all-white in America.” A moment of reflection comes with the most famous American lament of all, Barber’s Adagio, performed in memory of the ensemble’s tubist Thomas Keller, who passed away last fall. Yet the program opens on a very different note, with the enchanting Piano Quintet by Amy Beach: elegiac and dreamlike, faintly reminiscent of Brahms, it goes straight to the heart.

Performers:
Soloists and Brass Ensemble of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra
TBA, piano

Program:
Amy Beach (1867–1944)
Piano Quintet in F-sharp minor, Op. 67

George Gershwin (1898–1937)
Strike Up the Band, arranged for brass ensemble by Manfred Honetschläger

Samuel Barber (1910–1981)
Adagio from the String Quartet No. 1 in B minor, Op. 11, arranged for brass ensemble by Steven Verhaert

Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990)
Suite from West Side Story, arranged for brass ensemble by Eric Crees

Intermission at c. 20.05

Tickets from 24.03.2026 | 10 am (CET)