Swiss roll: Lucerne cancels Beethoven festival

press release:

Lucerne, 28 October 2020. The “Beethoven Farewell” Fall Festival, which was supposed to take
place from 20 to 22 November, has had to be canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. This
decision has been taken by Lucerne Festival with the greatest regret as a result of the restrictions
on events that the Swiss Federal Council communicated this afternoon. The new regulations make
it impossible to hold these concerts at the end of November 2020. The Festival is currently
examining all possible ways for rescheduling the events that had been planned with violinist Patricia
Kopatchinskaja and pianist Igor Levit to another date next year. To this end, the Festival is now in
close contact with the artists.
“Having to cancel concerts again is a deep blow to us,” says Executive and Artistic Director Michael
Haefliger. “After the successful realization of the 10-day ‘Life is Live’ Festival at the end of August,
which was held in lieu of the large-scale Summer Festival, we were hopeful that we would be able
to bring this difficult year to a gratifying close with the Fall Festival ‘Beethoven Farewell.’ The
decision by the Swiss Federal Council now leaves us with no choice but to cancel the concerts at
the end of November. We will make every effort to offer new dates next year to catch up. Eager to
move full speed ahead, we are now keeping our gaze directed towards the future and are very
much looking forward to presenting our wonderful plans for the coming year to you soon.”