The Lucerne Festival Orchestra is an ensemble with a very long and strong tradition.
As
far as I remember these three letters “LFO” have always been an indicator
for excellent orchestral playing by the best musicians of the world and
reflect the essence of how an orchestra should work: a combination of
friendship and outstanding quality of every single musician. And of
course, it’s not possible to talk about the LFO without mentioning
Claudio Abbado. Sadly I never had the chance to meet him in person or
even to attend one of his concerts but I consider myself very happy to
be a part of his heritage right now in my orchestra, the Mahler Chamber
Orchestra, which has always been a very important part of the LFO. So
even if I didn’t have the chance to play with Abbado in person, I have
the privilege, as a member of the MCO, to play with people who were
musically educated by him.
So how was it for me, the “newbie”, to
enter this grown group of musicians and friends of the famous LFO? In
fact it was very easy. Being surrounded by a lot of my dear MCO
colleagues I didn’t have any problems feeling comfortable in the
orchestra. And of course, as our music world is quite small, I knew a
few people already from playing in other orchestras and ensembles and I
felt immediately very at home.
Starting the tour in Milan, the
home of LFO Music Director Riccardo Chailly, we played our
first concert in the beautiful Scala and enjoyed in our spare time the
delicious Italian food such as fresh pasta with truffles or the famous
Risotto milanese before we left for our next destination on the other
side of the world. 
The main part of the tour then took place in
Shanghai, located in the west of China and apparently currently the
biggest city of the world in terms of the incredible number of 24
million inhabitants. Shanghai is extremely impressive. Not only does it
convince any visitor with its outstanding architecture like the famous
Lujiazui skyline as well as with historic buildings around “The Bund”.
Sometimes one even gets the feeling to be somewhere in France like, for
example, around the Shanghai Symphony Hall, where we played our concerts.
The hall is located in the beautiful French quarter of Shanghai,
surrounded by many international and traditional Chinese restaurants and
shops and even quite authentic French bakeries. 
Shanghai is
full of history and tradition as well. I had the chance to visit the the
Jing’an temple for example, one of the most famous Buddhist temples of
China, which was built in 247 AD and is now to be found in the middle of
shopping malls as a part of the vibrant city life of Shanghai. And just
as time around the building has changed, our modern lifestyle has also found
its way into the daily routine of the monks, who can be spotted looking
as much at their mobile phones as we “normal people” do.
Even
though the orchestra’s schedule was quite tight and we played a concert almost
every night, we had the chance to experience a bit the lifestyle of
Shanghai, meaning: we found great food, roof top cocktail bars in front
of the impressive skyline of the “Bund” and amazing Chinese massages in
hidden places. 
What I definitely have to mention as well is how
enthusiastically the Chinese audience welcomed us. When we arrived at our
hotel we found a letter from the Chinese promoter telling us the most
important things about what we should expect in China and what we
should be aware of, including the fact that we shouldn’t feel confused
if the Chinese audience wouldn’t be as outgoing as the audiences we are used to from
concerts in Europe. But we couldn’t have been more surprised in the end
by the loud clapping and the enthusiastic bravos we got after every
concert. We were all very impressed by how warm we were treated by them
so I think I speak for everyone when I say that we’re all looking very
much forward to coming back soon, either to Shanghai or to any other
place in the world which we can discover then and bring in exchange our
music there.
Photos: Geoffroy Schied / Anna Matz / Alena Leuteritz
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