Grand Finale: Es ist genug (?) – Lucerne Festival Pulse

Name: Grand Finale: Es ist genug (?) – Lucerne Festival Pulse
Start: 2026-05-17T17:00:00+02:00
Location: KKL Luzern, Concert hall

Schedule

Sun, 17 May, 2026 at 05:00 pm

UTC+02:00

Location

KKL Luzern, Concert hall | Lucerne, LU

Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Elim Chan, conductor
Víkingur Ólafsson, piano
Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin
Johann Sebastian Bach: Piano Concerto in F minor, BWV 1056
Anonymous: "A Vegale af'n Zweschpmbam" ("A Little Bird on a Plum Tree"), Carinthian folk song, arranged for violin by PatKop
Alban Berg: Violin Concerto "To the Memory of an Angel"
Johann Sebastian Bach: Chorale "Es ist genug" from the cantata "O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort", BWV 60
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
Bach – and beyond. For the grand finale of Lucerne Festival Pulse, Víkingur Ólafsson himself takes the stage to perform the composer's famous F minor Piano Concerto. Following intermission, Hong Kong-born maestra Elim Chan leads the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Brahms's Fourth Symphony – a work that likewise bears Bach's influence. The finale’s Passacaglia theme, which Brahms transforms with masterly skill, comes from Bach's earliest surviving cantata, "Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich" ("For Thee, O Lord, I Long"), BWV 150. Even in Berg's Violin Concerto – "one of the most Romantic ever," as Víkingur calls it – a Bach reference appears in the form of a quote from the chorale "Es ist genug" ("It Is Enough"). For this performance, he has invited his favorite violinist, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, entrusting her with a special role: instead of an encore, she will play the original chorale. The orchestra will sing along, and the audience is invited to join in. "That's something I'm not sure has ever been done at Lucerne Festival," Víkingur says. "But the question is, can we really ever have enough of music?" The answer is clear: no – nor of Lucerne Festival Pulse, which will return for its second edition in 2027.
Photo © Simon Pauly