Andris Nelsons for Lucerne, succeeding Abbado

Conductor Chess! In a stroke, Andris Nelsons changes the game. The Lucerne Festival has announced that Andris Nelsons will succeed Claudio Abbado as Director of the Lucerne Festival from this summer Abbado was unwell for a long time, so the question of a successor would have been under consideration for some time. From Lucerne:

 "Two different programs will be performed, each featuring works by Johannes Brahms. Claudio Abbado himself had planned these programs for the summer. “We are extremely pleased to be able to have Andris Nelsons, one of the leading conductors of our time, agree to take on these LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA concerts,” says Michael Haefliger, Executive and Artistic Director of LUCERNE FESTIVAL . “We are furthermore happy that we are able to present these two Brahms programs originally conceived by Claudio Abbado. In this way, the memory of the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA’s founder remains alive in the Festival’s artistic programming as well.” 

"At the start of the 2014-15 season, Nelsons will officially assume his position as Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Since the 2008-09 season , he has been at the helm of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and with the CBSO he made his LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut in the summer of 2009. Nelsons will be heard during LUCERNE FESTIVAL at Easter on 12 April, when he will conduct the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in the third act of Richard Wagner’s Parsifal. Along with the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA’s concerts, during LUCERNE FESTIVAL in Summer he will also lead the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra on 30 and 31 August.":

In chess terms, this is a masterstroke which takes control over the board. Lucerne is fundamentally important because it connects to the best and most interesting orchestras in the world. Like it or not Europe is where the action is, in artistic terms.  Nelsons is a pedigree racehorse, he needs challenge.