Photo: Olaf Malzahn

 

Sofia Gubaidulina on her 85th Birthday

Festival Strings Lucerne Foundation, Lucerne, Switzerland

 

This year Festival Strings Lucerne is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its founding. One outstanding artistic project in the anniversary season, supported by the EvS Music Foundation, is a special concert weekend at Lucerne concert hall Luzerner Konzertsaal KKL featuring a portrait concert in the Luzerner Saal and a gala concert in the grand hall to mark the 85th birthday of Sofia Gubaidulina. Her publishing house Sikorski in Hamburg will be coordinating a series of events marking the round birthday to globally commemorate the public work of this outstanding composer before she withdraws from public life in future.

The program of the mini festival featuring two concerts at KKL Luzern was coordinated with the composer who has also announced she will be coming and working with the musicians in the run-up to the concerts. Especially at the portrait concert in the Luzerner Saal Gubaidulina’s work will very much be centerstage and will be contrasted solely with works by J. S. Bach whose music, according to Gubaidulina, is among her most important musical points of reference. The participating soloists have a close personal relationship with Sofia Gubaidulina’s work. Appearing will be the pianists Elena Bashkirova and Alice die Piazza, the trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich as well as key members of Festival Strings Lucerne like cymbalist Vital Julian Frey. Lucerne’s music academy Hochschule Luzern – Musik will be contributing to the program with a musicological introduction to the work. Music students will have the chance to observe the rehearsals in the presence of the composers.

 

January 28, 2017
KKL Luzern, Luzerner Saal

 

January 29, 2017
KKL Luzern, Konzertsaal

 

Further Information
http://www.festivalstringslucerne.org