Luzerner Zeitung 12 Sept 2025 Roman Kühne

Two stars are set to take to the stage at the KKL on Wednesday evening: the jubilant organ and the improvising jack-of-all-trades Wayne Marshall. And joining them are the Festival Strings Lucerne, who, for once, even outshine the Vienna Philharmonic.

To round off Wayne Marshall’s solo performance on Monday at the Ark Nova, there’s a real crowd-pleaser. Of all things, *Star Wars*. A member of the audience requested Darth Vader’s ‘March of the Evil One’. But Marshall doesn’t bat an eyelid; he sits down at the piano and fills the unusual space with wonderful sounds. Or rather: whimsical ones.

He does play the distinctive theme – and yet he doesn’t. Hardly a single bar follows the melody. Yet it remains ever-present. The rapid key changes, the swaying tempos – the piece is pulled in every direction. A catchy tune from which new worlds emerge. Jazz improvisation at its finest.

Organ improvisation in the middle of the piece

It is these qualities that set the pianist, organist, composer and conductor Wayne Marshall apart from other piano prodigies. He captures music, moods and melodic sequences as if it were the most natural thing in the world. And he transforms them into something that seems similar, yet is entirely his own.

He also let these talents shine during his performance at the KKL on Wednesday evening – on the grand Goll organ and accompanied by the Festival Strings Lucerne under Daniel Dodds. In Francis Poulenc’s ‘Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani’, he captures the fairground atmosphere of this movement shortly before the end. The flying gondolas spin ever faster. Bright stalagmites of sound and atonal balls of chords. It is a clattering ride that leads seamlessly into the final movement.

This talent was in his blood from the very start. Even as a little tot, Wayne Marshall was playing the piano. All by ear. The shock came later, when he began piano lessons at the age of eight and was expected to read music. “That’s when the problems really kicked in,” as he remarked mischievously at the Ark Nova.

Organ at the KKL: Wool blankets to combat the reverberation

The opening piece is also the highlight of the evening. A wealth of colour, gripping rhythms, sensual organ playing and a lively interplay between the Festival Strings, the kettledrum and the orchestra leave nothing to be desired.

And it casts the other star of the evening in its most striking light: the Goll organ. For 25 years, it has formed the centrepiece of the Salle Blanche. Yet it is only (all too) rarely the star of the show. With 66 stops and 4,387 pipes, it is relatively small in scale and was not completed until two years after the KKL opened. There are plenty of anecdotes to go with it. For instance, the empty space intended for the organ reverberated so much that it had to be stuffed with woollen blankets as a stopgap measure. Or the tuning of the pipes: as the hall was often in use, this work usually took place in the dead of night.

The second piece of the evening, the 5th Organ Concerto by the French composer Naji Hakim, exemplifies just how flexible and agile this organ can sound. Hakim’s composition draws on his Lebanese roots. The first movement is a rhythmic celebration, a wild summer dance that draws spontaneous applause from the audience. The second movement floats along in the distance. A love scene straight out of ‘Casablanca’ – delightful and romantic. The finale is a whirl of magic and joie de vivre. One fly in the ointment: the balance between the orchestra, the kettledrum and the organ is off. A larger orchestra or a more streamlined organ arrangement would have been needed here.

Festival Strings Lucerne – Vienna Philharmonic 1:0

Compared to the sheer power of the pipes in the first movement, the performance by the Festival Strings Lucerne almost gets lost. Unlike the Vienna Philharmonic, their interpretation of Mozart’s ‘Jupiter Symphony’ is based on historical performance practice. With a lean sound, a ‘dry’ kettle drum, valveless trumpets and an expressive touch, the Festival Strings portray the first two movements in a picturesque and meaningful way. It is a pity, however, that the numerous delays and pauses take some of the breath out of the third movement. The finale is light and lively once more. Amidst all the large ensembles of the past few days, this is a welcome breath of fresh air.