Classical Music Can Be Casual: The 40min Series Turns 10

10 years of 40min! When we announced the Festival theme of “Revolution” in the summer of 2013, we also aimed to “revolutionize” the experience of a classical music concert in the evening by devising a format that would appeal to everyone: not just music enthusiasts but anyone who simply would like to get a taste of the Festival’s atmosphere. A format that would not only present music but also engage in conversation with the artists – and allow us to get to know them as people while also bringing to light more background about the composers, their works, and what literally “happens” during performance. A format that would cover the entire range of the Festival’s offerings, from Renaissance madrigals to the most up-to-date sonic experiments, from solo pieces to large orchestral ensembles. A format that would immerse the audience in the unique atmosphere of the Festival without worrying about a formal dress code, but instead allow for a very casual attitude. A format that would be shorter than a concert but longer than a mere appetizer.

In short: we were looking for a format that could do it all. So we came up with the 40min series. “Short, moderated, free-admission concerts” is how we introduced the series back then – using a deliberately lengthy phrase that was supposed to make it clear what the 40min concerts were all about.

Since its inception in 2013, the 40min series has been supported by our main sponsor and partner 40min Zurich Insurance.

Since then, the 40min concerts have become one of the most popular of the Festival’s offerings. Indeed, they are a real audience magnet, precisely because they are so varied. And they really do appeal to everyone: sophisticated Festival fans and spontaneous visitors alike, as well as youthful listeners and young children, who can relax in comfort on cozy beanbags placed at the front of the stage.

40min has made and continues to make it possible for you to experience countless discoveries. It’s a format where Lucerne Festival Academy participants are given “carte blanche” to offer us exciting adventures in listening. We introduce projects and works-in-progress there: new scores where the ink is still wet, excerpts of which you can encounter even before their official premiere, or productions for children and families that are still in the middle of the rehearsal process.

And you can also encounter celebrated stars as they play music and engage in conversation. In 2016, for example, Anne-Sophie Mutter introcuded Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto at a 40min event. A long queue formed in front of the KKL Luzern for her appearance, and unfortunately there was not enough space in Lucerne Hall for all those interested... The same thing happened in the summer of 2014, when Sir Simon Rattle was conducting the Lucerne Festival Academy and introduced Luciano Berio’s Coro.

Sir Simon provided another unforgettable moment in 40-min’s ongoing history in 2018, when he demonstrated how he prepared for the performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Gruppen together with fellow conductors Jaehyuck Choi and Duncan Ward. Gruppen is an orchestral piece that calls for three conductors and a correspondingly complex coordination in performance. Without the orchestra – as soloists of the baton, so to speak – Rattle, Choi, and Ward conducted themselves through the score, singing, humming, and coordinating their entries with precision.

Many others have also been guests at the 40min concerts, from Riccardo Chailly, Isabelle Faust, Sol Gabetta, Martin Grubinger, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Heinz Holliger, Jakub Hrůša, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Golda Schultz to the slam poet Saul Williams and the comedy duo Igudesman & Joo. And, of course, so has the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, as well as in miniature, in other words, for original chamber music programs. In keeping with the Festival theme of “crazy” in 2021, for example, compositions for anything but everyday instrumentation were heard during that summer: for example, for two double basses or double bassoon: sound worlds totally deep in the register!

We are looking forward to nine varied 40min concerts in the anniversary summer of 2023, as well as a new special offering: for our 10th birthday, we will present 40min Open Air, consisting of three parts. It will be our first-ever outdoor event, right in front of the KKL. Here, too, the program will be of the widest possible scope, with a lineup including the brass quintet KamBrass, the percussionists of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO), and the horn player Sarah Willis, who will instill a dancing mood with her Sarahbanda.