Founded in 1938 with a Toscanini concert at Tribschen — Wagner's house — as a deliberate alternative to a Salzburg and Bayreuth then under Nazi control, Lucerne has been among the most serious orchestral festivals in Europe ever since. The Lucerne Festival Orchestra, reconstituted by Claudio Abbado in 2003 from soloists and chamber players, is its centrepiece.
The hall is Jean Nouvel's KKL on the lakefront, whose acoustic is among the best built in the twentieth century.
No attendance figure is collected in this pass.
The summer festival runs a month; the separate Easter and November editions are different, shorter events under the same name — MOLT lists the winter one in January, and the two should not be read as one season.
PlanningA month-long summer window of individual concerts; separate short editions run at Easter and in November.