Has William Tell’s homeland become the new land of ecology? While the Gstaad Menuhin Festival is committed to the subject of protecting nature by tackling the theme of global change (notably with Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s ‘Music for the Planet’ concert series), it is the Lucerne Festival that has just made headlines. Conductor Vladimir Jurowski was conducting a Bruckner symphony on Friday 8 September 2023 when he was interrupted by two young activists from Renovate Switzerland. Despite protests from the audience, Jurowski let them have their say, and then resumed the normal course of the concert, undisturbed. Music and its urgency seem to have become the best vehicles for getting messages across.

Book your tickets for classical performances in Switzerland

(c) Matthias Creutziger