The LAC stage is honoured to host, for the first time in Switzerland, the Göteborgs Symfoniker Orchestra, which was awarded the title of Sweden's National Orchestra in 1997. It will be conducted by the legendary maestro Neeme Järvi, who was its principal conductor for 22 years. Together with soloist Truls Mørk, one of the greatest cellists of our time, they will take us on a journey to the heart of Nordic and European musical tradition, transporting us to a sound universe rich in emotion, narrative and beauty.

The concert programme takes us through different eras, sensibilities and styles, all linked by a common thread: the aspiration to elevation, progress and poetic tension between the earthly and the transcendent. The four composers featured – Frenchman Camille Saint-Saëns and Finn Jean Sibelius, alongside Swedish Romantics Wilhelm Stenhammar and Hugo Alfvén – each represent a unique vision of this momentum, while maintaining a strong connection to their homeland and traditions. The programme opens with Stenhammar's Excelsior!, a world premiere for Lugano, followed by Saint-Saëns' acrobatic Cello Concerto No. 1 and Sibelius' ethereal Sixth Symphony, which captures the silence and light of the Finnish landscape. The programme concludes with Alfvén's Suite from Den förlorade sonen, also a Swiss Italian premiere, which blends classical music and Swedish folklore in an explosion of rhythmic energy and colour.