Is it odd that Switzerland’s largest supermarket uses a percentage of its revenue to fund cultural events, including a long-running series of classical music concerts? Maybe such things are normal in the Swiss universe of direct democracy. Aside from being one of Europe’s major retailers, the Migros cooperative also runs its own adult education institute (the Klubschule), the Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, four public parks and an alpine railway in Ticino.
The Migros Culture Percentage Classics have been going for more than 70 years, aiming to bring top-flight performances to the public at affordable prices. (Concerts generally begin at 35 francs – inexpensive for Switzerland – with some being only 10 francs.) This year’s series features a slew of the continent’s best ensembles, including the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden and Les Concert des Nations, performing across the country: Geneva, Zurich, Bern, Lucerne and Lugano.
The season kicks off at the end of October with the arrival of British ensemble Aurora Orchestra for a three-night stint in Zurich, Geneva and Bern, performing for Ravel’s ever-popular G major Piano Concerto with soloist Alexandre Tharaud. Paired with Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, this is a sparkling and ebullient programme – with Tharaud’s lightness of touch perfectly suited to Ravel’s meticulously-honed jazz-Mozart divertissement.
The Staatskappelle Dresden also make an appearance this season, for an all-Robert Schumann programme conducted by its new Chief Conductor Daniele Gatti. Gatti himself is a well-known figure for Swiss audiences, being chief conductor of Zurich Opera 2009–12, and a frequent guest with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. But this programme sees Gatti with the thoroughly Saxon Dresden orchestra – one of the very finest in Germany – with renowned Frank Peter Zimmermann joining for Schumann’s only Violin Concerto.
The public-spirited nature of the series shows itself in the first concerts of the new year, with B’Rock Orchestra performing Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto, led from the piano by Alexander Melkinov. Presenting the piece à la Leonard Bernstein by explaining its workings and structure directly from the soloist’s instrument, the Belgian B’Rock Orchestra also captures the current ethos of period-instrument performance: sharp, precise, yet approachable and distinctly modern. Melnikov is rare among pianists in having an interest in period instruments – there can be no better guide for a fresh perspective on Beethoven’s concerto.
Baroque music and top-quality period-instrument performance continues through the spring of 2025, first with the appearance of the only Swiss ensemble in the concert series: Geneva Camerata. Conductor David Greilsammer pairs Lully’s Suite from Le Bourgeois gentilhomme with contemporary composition by Swiss composer Barblina Meierhans, together with Mozart’s Symphony no. 40. Dancer and choreographer Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola choreographs the orchestra, who play from memory, moving around the performance space. Geneva Camerata continue to be one of the country’s most adventurous and eclectic ensembles.
Dance also forms part of the late April concerts given by Jordi Savall’s Concert des Nations. The Slovenian Maribor Ballet and choreographer Edward Clug join the venerable stalwart of Early Music for a three-night tour through Geneva, Zurich and Bern. Rameau’s Les Boréades and Gluck’s Don Juan make up this programme: Rameau’s lyric tragedy was seemingly never performed in the composer’s lifetime – for shame. We are lucky to hear it today, and both Rameau’s and Gluck’s music is some of the most vital of the 17th and 18th centuries.
The Migros concert series concludes in May with Iván Fischer’s Budapest Festival Orchestra, comprising more or less the finest musicians in Hungary. In Geneva, Lucerne, Zurich and Bern, Fischer conducts Mahler’s spectacular Fifth Symphony, loved and feared by first chair trumpeters everywhere. May 2025 is the month of months for Mahlerians – with the first Mahler Festival at being held at the Concertgebouw for a hundred years. Fischer and the BFO perform this same symphony a few days before arriving in Switzerland. But for those who can’t make the trip to Amsterdam (or couldn’t obtain the hugely expensive tickets), the Budapest Festival Orchestra can be seen performing this essential symphony for only 10 francs. Making music widely available is exactly what this concert series was set up to do, and Migros is succeeding.
See all listings for Migros Culture Percentage Classics 2024–25.
Performances featuring the Baltic Sea Philharmonic have been cancelled. Les Siècles will be performing instead from 15th–17th November.
This article was sponsored by Migros-Kulturprozent-Classics.
