As «Pianiste Associée», Martha Argerich has helped establish Le Piano Symphonique as a firm fixture among the international piano festivals. The 2027 edition places the pianist at its centre in honour of her 85th birthday. From the opening concert with the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, the festival is shaped by the spirit of encounter that Ar…

In 2027, Le Piano Symphonique takes the idea of the “Next Generation” into a new dimension with the Japanese pianist and composer Hayato Sumino. Here, classical music for a new generation can be experienced live, as Sumino joins the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester to connect popular classics with jazz, tango and his own compositions. Hayato Sumi…

One hallmark of Le Piano Symphonique is the concert evening that places chamber music and orchestral sound in a special relationship. Wednesday’s concert with the pianists Martha Argerich, Mikhail Pletnev and Yunchan Lim, together with the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, is a prime example of this format. In the first act, Martha Argerich joins…

In 2027, the lunchtime concert series at the Hotel Schweizerhof Luzern once again offers pianistic discoveries. It opens with Anna Geniushene, who combines virtuosity and spirituality in works by Prokofiev, Verdi, Liszt and Stravinsky. How do new pianists come onto the radar of a piano festival? At Le Piano Symphonique, one path leads throu…

Thursday’s chamber-music evening, under the title Martha Argerich & Friends, brings together musical companions as an artistic family across generations: Martha Argerich, Dong Hyek Lim, Janine Jansen, Mischa Maisky and further musicians. The evening opens with Dong Hyek Lim in Beethoven’s Eroica Variations. Born in Seoul in 1984, the pi…

The complete programme of the piano festival “Le Piano Symphonique” will only be announced in June. Already confirmed, however, is the concert “Martha Argerich & Friends”, which brings together central elements of this festival. Solo recitals, chamber music and concerts with orchestra at “Le Piano Symphoni…

A festival lunchtime as a surprise: for the Lunch Concert Surprise, the exact programme remains open for the time being. What is certain is the setting – piano music at close range in the Zeugheersaal of the Hotel Schweizerhof Luzern. The format invites the audience to embrace the unexpected: a short, concentrated lunchtime concert moment t…

At a festival centred on the piano as a universal instrument, neither Bach nor jazz can be absent. Brad Mehldau brings both together in his recital at Le Piano Symphonique. The pianist and composer is one of the defining jazz pianists of the present day. The proximity between Bach’s music and jazz has often been described. Brad Mehldau appr…

Virtuosity is a prerequisite for artistic careers – and yet it has something of an image problem. Artist biographies like to invoke the profound musicality of their protagonists, while technical brilliance tends to appear as an incidental extra. The fear is that a musician might be misunderstood as a mere acrobat of the fingers. In Sophia L…

When Martha Argerich and Charles Dutoit appear together, musical history can be experienced first-hand and in deeply personal form. Both take centre stage at the anniversary gala: Martha Argerich with Chopin’s First Piano Concerto, and Charles Dutoit at the podium of the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester with Stravinsky’s Petrushka. The anniversar…

A special festival moment on Sunday morning: at the conclusion of the workshop with Mischa Maisky, musicians of the next generation have the opportunity to perform together with one of the defining cellists of our time. The format presents Le Piano Symphonique as a place of encounter and transmission. The focus is not only on the performanc…

A grand festival finale with Daniil Trifonov: with his combination of tenderness and demonic energy, admired early on by Martha Argerich, the pianist extends his European roots towards Latin American-inspired dances from South America. Trifonov is among the artists whose careers were accompanied early on by the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester. M…

Exactly 200 years to the day after Ludwig van Beethoven’s death, Rudolf Buchbinder devotes a recital to the composer as part of Le Piano Symphonique. Few pianists have engaged with Beethoven as intensively over decades as Buchbinder – as performer, editor and musical thinker. The programme spans a wide arc: from the early Piano Sonata No. 3…

With Hélène Grimaud, one of the defining pianists of our time returns to Lucerne. Her recital as part of Le Piano Symphonique leads to two final great piano sonatas: Beethoven’s Sonata No. 32 in C minor op. 111 and Schubert’s Sonata No. 21 in B-flat major D 960. Both works stand at the end of a compositional path and at the same time open a…