Faced with the health crisis, the entire Festival team worked on a new organization to maintain concerts and welcome the public.

While the program was essentially maintained, with adjustments and innovations, the Festival had to give up the large symphonic formations, which could not be welcomed on the stages while maintaining physical distance.
But the 2020 edition has remained rich and varied, faithful to the eclecticism of the Festival, with more than 30 concerts, the maintenance of orchestras of up to 40 musicians, as well as chamber music, jazz and world music formations, sometimes outdoors, in larger halls, and some broadcasts on giant screens and the Internet.

Brochure of the 73th "limited edition"
2020 Press kit
2020 Complete review (french)
2020 Photo & video gallery

First review

Artistic review

The 73rd “limited edition” of the Festival ended Sunday, September 20, with Orquesta Silbando’s tango notes at the Grand Kursaal, a concert broadcast on a giant screen in Place Granvelle and live on the Internet.
The positioning of the Festival at the end of the summer allowed us to set up an edition adapted to the health context (suppression of the big symphonic formations, changes of places, schedules, retransmissions on giant screen and on the web…), and to offer you, after several months of silence, an edition which remained rich and varied.

Highlights include the Orchestre de chambre de Lausanne with soloist Alisa Weilerstein on cello in Shostakovich’s Concerto, under the baton of Joshua Weilerstein, the only “big band” of this edition with the Orchestre Victor Hugo Franche-Comté.
Two very beautiful moments also at the Grand Kursaal: Hervé Niquet and the Concert Spirituel offered a Handel evening of the highest level, while Quintet Bumbac took the audience on a journey with its melodies from the Balkans and the Middle East.
The young audience concert “Mozart illustré”, premiered at the Festival, with the Winds Arts Orchestra conducted by Julien Bénéteau, and live illustrations by Grégoire Pont, was also a great success, both with school children and the general public.
Finally, the aperitif-jazz concerts, Place Granvelle, replacing after-jazz, found its audience from the very first evening, with attendance tripled compared to the old formula.

OCLausanne (c) Yves Petit

Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne © Yves Petit

Camille Pépin seduced

The residence of composer Camille Pépin had to be reduced, with the cancellation of part of the meetings planned for the spring with the conservatories, as well as two concerts where symphonic pieces should have been played in September.

But festival-goers were still able to hear the music of our young composer thanks to the Trio Metral and then Célia Oneto Bensaid who performed two pieces magnificently in a Ravel-Glass-Pépin recital.

Camille Pépin (c) Yves Petit

Camille Pépin © Yves Petit

Some figures

• The 2020 edition is marked by the COVID-19 health crisis with the cancellation of seven symphony concerts, the reduction of gauges and the changes in halls and schedules.

10000
spectators
3000
spectators on charged concerts only
7000
spectators on free concerts
-75%
de billetterie par rapport à 2018

The cancellation of seven major concerts and the reduction of gauges partly explain these figures, but it seems that a part of the public has not yet fully regained its way to the concert halls…

• The 2020 budget is slightly lower due to cancellations.

815000
euros approx.

• In this exceptional year, the Festival would particularly like to thank all its partners and patrons who have maintained their support.