Thu, 20.08.2026
Summer Festival: Lucerne Symphony Orchestra

What does America sound like? Perhaps like Rhapsody in Blue, George Gershwin's early stroke of genius. Just listen to the opening clarinet solo with its long, sustained glissando, and you'll see the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan in your mind's eye, think of Broadway, or New York jazz clubs. Alexander Malofeev, born in 2001, a native Russian who lives in Berlin, will perform this "greatest hit" with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra. And he's the perfect choice! Back in 2024, he thrilled audiences here when, under Riccardo Chailly, he performed Rachmaninoff's notoriously difficult First Piano Concerto with a virtuosity, mastery, and poetry that is second to none. Malofeev is also a treasure hunter and loves to unearth unknown repertoire. For example, the Second Piano Concerto by the Finnish composer Selim Palmgren, who died in 1951, whose music is being performed at the festival for the very first time. It is highly romantic—and thus forms a bridge to Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, which Michael Sanderling will conduct after the intermission. During this musical "confession of the soul," hearts will melt.

Performers:
Lucerne Symphony Orchestra
, Michael Sanderling, Conductor,
Alexander Malofeev, Piano.

Program:
Selim Palmgren (1878–1951)
Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 33 "The River";

George Gershwin (1898–1937)
Rhapsody in Blue

; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)
Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64.

Intermission at approximately 8:20 p.m.