Lucerne's Piano festival «Le Piano Symphonique»

Review of the program

In its fourth edition, the piano festival «Le Piano Symphonique» 2025 attracted over 10,000 visitors to Lake Lucerne. A total of sixteen pianists and one harpsichordist presented their skills in twelve concerts at three venues. First and foremost the «Pianiste Associée» Martha Argerich and Evgeny Kissin, who presented his Shostakovich project to the world for the first time in Lucerne. But also newcomers such as Ilya Shmukler, Daniel Ciabanu and Kiveli Dörken in lunchtime concerts, all of which were sold out. The evening concerts with Yunchan Lim and Beatrice Rana and the closing concert with Martha Argerich were also particularly popular. She not only enchanted the audience. The press was also full of praise.

FAZ:
«First and foremost Martha Argerich, the festival’s «Pianiste Associée». Her presence was palpable even when she wasn’t performing.»

SRF:
«A piano festival in a class of its own.»

Neue Zürcher Zeitung:
«Selfless world stars: Martha Argerich and Yevgeny Kissin thrill at the piano festival in Lucerne»

The Guardian:
«This classy gathering is only in its fourth iteration and yet has grown hugely in stature, attracting some of the world’s top artists and showcasing rising stars.»
«The atmosphere was electric, the audience ecstatic. Plainly, there’s no better medicine than music.»

ND:
«Encouraging and challenging – the wild «Piano Symphonique» festival shone in Lucerne»

And so we can look forward to «Le Piano Symphoniqe» 2026, which will take place from January 12 to 18, 2026. Before that, however, pianists Evgeny Kissin (13.03.2025), Khatia Buniatishvili (26.04.2025) and Krystian Zimerman (20.06.2025) will be treating piano enthusiasts to outstanding programs in Lucerne during the current season.

Since 2022, the Swiss city of Lucerne has become a magical place of pilgrimage for piano lovers, radiating like a «beacon in Swiss musical life”, as described by the NZZ. This was the year the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester launched «Le Piano Symphonique», a festival focussed on the piano and its relation to the symphonic sound world. The festival programme includes not only choice recitals, but also intimate chamber music and solo concertos with orchestra. Lucerne is therefore not only «home to a premier piano festival», as the BBC Music Magazine puts it, but also offers a unique opportunity to experience world-renowned artists up close.

Piano enthusiasts can look forward to great artists once again in January 2025. The festival doors will be open from January 13th-18th 2025, and three further recitals will be held during the 2025 festival season, featuring stars of the piano Evgeny Kissin (13.03.25), Khatia Buniatishvili (26.04.2025), and Krystian Zimerman (20.06.25). Evgeny Kissin is also involved in a highlight of the 2025 festival, the «Shostakovich Project» in part I and part II. In this project, the Russian star pianist will perform works by his composer compatriot together with long-standing musical friends and companions such as Gidon Kremer, the Kopelman Quartet, singer Chen Reiss and tenor Michael Schade. Martha Argerich, the «master of weightless sound» (NZZ), will remain a key figure of the festival in her role as «Pianiste Associée» She can be heard twice in Camille Saint-Saëns’ «Carnival of the Animals»; once with her daughter Annie Dutoit as narrator (in Act II of the evening programme on 17.01.25) and then in a family concert on the morning of 18.01.25 with an animation by Sandra Albukrek. The «Grande Dame» of the piano will also perform the festival’s closing concert. Hotly anticipated at the Piano Festival 2025 are Turkish pianist Fazıl Say, who will open the festival with Bach’s «Goldberg Variations»; Leif Ove Andsnes performing Edvard Grieg, Frédéric Chopin and other contemporary works; Italian pianist Beatrice Rana in Mendelssohn’s first piano concerto with the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester; and the German-Greek pianist Kiveli Dörken, who will play late Romantic chamber music with members of the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester. There will also be a Berlin ballad and chanson evening with HK Gruber and Kirill Gerstein. Jazz lovers will get their money’s worth, too, when the leading German jazz pianist of the new generation, Michael Wollny, performs together with harpsichordist Tamar Halperin.