Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO)

Jörg Widmann, conductor; Wolfgang Rihm “Tutuguri”

Der Komponist Wolfgang Rihm 2021 in der Philharmonie Berlin – Ein Mann in Jacke und Schal lehnt an einem Geländer im Foyer der Philharmonie.

The Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra and its new musical director Jörg Widmann bring an intensely impactful work to the Musikfest Berlin: Tutuguri by the young Wolfgang Rihm. The poème dansé activates a powerful battery of percussion and translates the “fevered pulse” of the eponymous poem by Antonin Artaud – which imagines the ritual Tutugúri dances of the indigenous peoples of northern Mexico – into captivating music.

Tutuguri remains an exceptional phenomenon within Wolfgang Rihm’s highly prolific body of works. There is no other work by the composer who died in 2024 which unleashes such unruly elemental forces, and nowhere else do we see rhythm and the awe-inspiring use of percussion as the core focus of a work as in this score in which the final section is performed solely by the six percussionists and amplified choir on tape. 

Rihm’s poème dansé is based on Antonin Artaud’s only radio play Pour en finir avec le jugement de Dieu [For an end to the judgement of God], his radical reckoning with society, the church and psychiatric hospitals where Artaud was incarcerated for nine years. In this radiophonic piece, the dramatist reveals his concept “theatre of cruelty” intended to evoke existential borderline experiences. His poem on the ritual dances of the Tarahumaras should not become effective merely through the medium of the spoken word: “Everything must be brought precisely into furious order” according to Artaud. And Rihm’s music is indeed in a variety of ways “equally present in every section and every note. It was the text which brought forth this music – a ritualistic image of diverging energies.”

The Lucerne Festival Academy orchestra of excellence devotes its concert to Wolfgang Rihm, who shaped this master school for contemporary music as its artistic director from 2016 until his death. Jörg Widmann will be appointed as new artistic director in 2026.

Wolfgang Rihm (1952–2024)

Tutuguri (1980–82) 

Poème dansé  

for large orchestra, drums, taped choir and speaker 

based on the poem Tutuguri from the audio play Pour en finir avec le jugement de dieu by Antonin Artaud  

concert performance 

I. Bild (Anrufung … das schwarze Loch …)

II. Bild (schwarze und rote Tänze … das Pferd …)

III. Bild (der Peyotl-Tanz … die letzte Sonne … der schreiende Mann …)

IV. Bild (Kreuze … das Hufeisen … die sechs Männer … der Siebte …)

Artists/Collaborators: Michael Engelhardt, Maxime Le Saux, Jörg Widmann

A Berliner Festspiele / Musikfest Berlin event

Work introduction

18:10, South Foyer

Next date:

• Date Wednesday, 02/September/2026 19:00
• Venue Philharmonie Berlin
• Address Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße 1, 10785 Berlin-Tiergarten