Riccardo Chailly conducts Boulez and Mahler — With Elīna Garanča

Maestro Riccardo Chailly opens the 2025 Lucerne Festival with an evocative program of Mahler and Boulez. The remarkable mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča lends her crystalline voice to Mahler's captivating Rückert-Lieder, a song cycle set to poems by Friedrich Rückert, including “Liebst du um Schönheit,” a touching testament to the composer’s love for his young wife, Alma. This is followed by Mahler’s "Unfinished" Symphony No. 10, what may well have been his greatest symphony had he completed it before his death... The Lucerne Festival Orchestra performs the posthumous reconstruction by Derycke Cooke, based on one completed movement and Mahler's sketches for the other four. The concert opens with Pierre Boulez's Mémoriale (...explosante-fixe… Originel), an homage to Ensemble Intercontemporain flautist Larry Beauregard for solo flute and small ensemble.