On a search for the mysterious and wonderful, music and belief will be good companions at LUCERNE FESTIVAL, OSTERN 2002, happening March 15-24 in the beautiful lakeside city of Lucerne. The Festival will open with Joseph Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ, in the rare string quartet version. Other pieces to be performed during the 9-day festival include Schubert’s Mass in A flat major, Mendelssohn’s rarely heard setting of the 42nd Psalm, Arthur Honegger’s Symphony No. 3 (Liturgical), two programs containing selections from Messiaen’s huge output of sacred music, and an evening dedicated to the music of 17th-century composer Heinrich Schütz (Sagittarius). Biblically inspired music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Galina Ustwolskaja, and Ernst Krenek will also be heard during LUCERNE FESTIVAL, OSTERN 2002. In a more experimental realm, the festival will present an original Mystery Play called Light, Sound, Words – Word, Light, Sounds, realized by director Beny von Moos, poet Christian Uetz and Hardcore Chambermusic Koch-Schütz-Studer, performed in Lucerne’s 17-Century Jesuit Church. It is fitting that many of the OSTERN 2002 concerts are in local churches. In addition to Lucerne’s recently built concert hall (designed by Jean Nouvel with acoustics by Russell Johnson and ARTEC), the city’s historic Franciscan Church and Jesuit Church will serve as music venues. Since its creation in 1938, the LUCERNE FESTIVAL has always drawn the cream of the world’s musicians, and OSTERN 2002 is no exception. Artists include the Carmina Quartet, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, RIAS Kammerchor, Philippe Herreweghe, Begoña Uriarte, Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, Franz Welser-Möst, Steven Isserlis, early music group La Petite Bande, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras, Alfred Brendel, Festival Strings Lucerne, Collegium Novum Zürich, Munich Philharmonic, Christian Thielemann, Nederlands Kamerkoor, Uwe Gronostay, Concentus Musicus Wien, Arnold Schoenberg Chor Wien and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.