Lucerne Festival’s Pulse begins in Switzerland under the curation of Víkingur Ólafsson

The inaugural edition of Pulse, Lucerne Festival’s new spring event curated by Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, begins on 8 May in Switzerland. Conceived around the theme “Time and Space,” the festival runs through 17 May and explores connections between the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and contemporary artistic perspectives.

The opening project takes place in Meggen, at St. Pius Church, where Ólafsson performs Bach’s Goldberg Variations alongside a new light installation by Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson. Presented from 8 to 10 May, the production combines live music and real-time visual design in what the Festival describes as a synesthetic experience. The translucent marble architecture of the church was cited by Ólafsson as particularly suited to this kind of interdisciplinary collaboration.

The festival then moves to the KKL Luzern for four days of concerts from 14 to 17 May. Ólafsson appears both as soloist and collaborator alongside artists and ensembles including the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the MDR Radio Choir, the Danish String Quartet, Thomas Adès, Elim Chan, and Patricia Kopatchinskaja.

Among the announced programmes is an evening conducted by Adès featuring works by Ligeti, Kurtág, Adès, and Pärt; a chamber concert by the Danish String Quartet combining Beethoven, Bach/Stravinsky arrangements, and Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for String Quartet; and a late-night performance of Morton Feldman’s Piano and String Quartet with Ólafsson. His solo recital on 16 May, titled Opus 109, juxtaposes Bach and Schubert with Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op. 109.

The closing concert on 17 May includes Bach’s Piano Concerto in F minor under the direction of Chan, alongside Berg’s Violin Concerto with Kopatchinskaja and Brahms’s Symphony No. 4. The festival concludes with a communal performance of the Bach chorale Es ist genug.

Sebastian Nordmann, Executive and Artistic Director of Lucerne Festival, has described Pulse as “a festival that follows the rhythm of thought and feeling,” conceived as more than a traditional piano series. Ólafsson, who will curate Pulse through 2028, has said that the theme of time and space allows the programme to travel “through centuries and across countries,” with Bach serving as a recurring point of reference.