Chailly opens Lucerne Festival: American Sounds

Riccardo Chailly, Frank Dupree and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in Gershwin and Ives, captured in a new 4K HDR production.

Riccardo Chailly and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra open the 2026 Lucerne Festival with a vibrant program of American music, pairing Gershwin’s Cuban Overture and Piano Concerto in F major with Charles Ives’s Symphony No. 1. Frank Dupree brings “freedom, freshness, agility, spontaneity” (El País) to Gershwin’s concerto, while the orchestra delivers a performance of “stunning” quality (Les Echos). In Ives, the LFO’s “attentive interplay and exemplary ensemble quality” (NZZ) reveals the work’s originality and late-Romantic richness. Chailly’s interpretation was praised for making the music not merely glow, but “shine” (Luzerner Zeitung). The production captures an opening night marked by vitality, virtuosity and discovery, preserving the energy and detail of the live performance in 4K HDR.

Lucerne Festival Orchestra
Riccardo Chailly, conductor
Frank Dupree, piano

George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Cuban Overture
Piano Concerto in F major

Charles Ives (1874-1954)
Symphony No. 1 in D minor, JS 1

A 4K HDR Production of Accentus Music
In Coproduction with Arte GEIE, SRG and SRF
In Cooperation with Mezzo and Lucerne Festival