Tue, August 25th, 2026
Summer Festival: Debut Yuki Hirano

She is just 21 years old and has already caused an international sensation in recent years: Yuki Hirano, born in Sapporo, Japan, won the Vienna Classical Violin Competition at the Classical Violin Olympus in 2024 and emerged victorious from the International Jascha Heifetz Competition in Vilnius in the spring of 2025, where she also received several special prizes. The secret to her success? "If the audience can enjoy the music, I'm happy," explains the student of Pavel Vernikov at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna. The program she has chosen for her Lucerne Festival debut offers the best conditions for this. There is, for example, the captivating violin sonata by Alexey Shor, born in Ukraine in 1970. Originally a violin concerto, Shor, together with the legendary pianist Mikhail Pletnev, transformed it into a duo piece—creating a true hit: folksy, virtuosic, and sumptuous. The music of Szymanowski and Dvořák is highly romantic. And with the graceful and brilliant Valse-Caprice, arranged by the violin virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe after an étude by Saint-Saëns, there is simply no stopping the excitement.

Program:
Alexey Shor (*1970) / Mikhail Pletnev (*1957)
Violin Sonata in B minor
based on Shor's Violin Concerto No. 4

Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937)
Violin Sonata in D minor, Op. 9

Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)
Romantic Pieces, Op. 75

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) / Eugène Ysaÿe (1858–1931)
Caprice d'après l'Étude en forme de Valse, Op. 52 No. 6

This concert has no intermission.

Tickets available from March 24, 2026 | 10:00 AM (CET)