Brass and folk tunes drifting across still water as the light over Pilatus turns from gold to grey.
Lucerne Festival
Applause fading into the stillness of the lake outside.
Each year, from mid-August to mid-September, the Lucerne Festival turns the KKL Luzern into the centre of the classical music world. Jean Nouvel's concert hall, built directly on the shore of Lake Lucerne and known for its acoustics, hosts five weeks and more than 100 concerts, drawing celebrated orchestras, conductors and soloists from across the globe.
The tradition traces back to 1938, when Arturo Toscanini conducted the first concert in the gardens of Wagner's villa at Tribschen. Two shorter editions frame the year: Lucerne Festival Spring, held over the Palm Sunday weekend, and Lucerne Festival Piano in November. Around 110,000 visitors attend annually, and the programme shifts theme each year, moving between early music and contemporary composition.
Tickets for the best-known orchestras sell out months ahead, though smaller chamber concerts remain easier to reach.
