New Live Recordings of André Cluytens from Lucerne Festival Released

Two previously unreleased live recordings from the International Music Festival Weeks in Lucerne (now Lucerne Festival) have been published, featuring Belgian-born French conductor André Cluytens (1905–1967). The recordings, made in the summer of 1954, capture Cluytens leading the Philharmonia Orchestra in César Franck's Symphony in D minor and Aram Khachaturian's Violin Concerto with the 23-year-old violinist Igor Oistrach. Oistrach's performance includes his own cadenza, which surpasses both the original and the one commonly played by his father, David Oistrach. The release also includes a 32-page trilingual booklet with a portrait of Cluytens by Michael Struck-Schloen and previously unpublished photos from the festival archive. Cluytens, who was known for his elegance, fidelity to the score, and dramatic flair without showmanship, was one of the most prominent conductors of French repertoire in the 1950s and 1960s, alongside Charles Münch, Ernest Ansermet, and Jean Martinon. He was the first Frenchman to conduct at Bayreuth in 1955 and recorded the first complete set of Beethoven symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic between 1957 and 1960. The recordings were made at the Kunsthaus Luzern on August 28, 1954, and are released under the Lucerne Festival label (EAN: 4022143978462) with a release date of September 4, 2026.