In the small city of Ribe, every late summer, for a little over 10 years, the music takes over during the Rued Langgaard Festival. This year’s theme is Uendelighed, infinity.
This festival celebrating this Danish underdog, aims at presenting Rued Langgaard’s music in an artistic meeting with other composers. This year among these composers are Per Nørgård and Hans Abrahamsen.
Yet another celebration of Per Nørgård’s 90th birthday that we have been looking forward to this year.
This celebration includes the staging of the opera Gilgamesh, an opera in 6 days and 7 nights, first premiered in 1973. In 1974, Nørgård was awarded the Nordic Council music prize for Gilgamesh.
This performance is a collaboration between Esbjerg Ensemble, Ensemble Midtvest, The Royal Danish Academy of Music, the Danish National Academy of Music and The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, under the direction of Magnus Larsson.
All four concert days feature music by Per Nørgård and Rued Langgaard performed amongst others by star cellist and dear friend of Nørgård, Jakob Kullberg and Rued Langgaard recording artists violinist Gunvor Sihm and pianist Berit Johansen Tange.
This year’s festival also celebrates another birthday, Hans Abrahamsen’s 70th, with the world premiere of his orchestration of Rued Langgaard’s Gitanjali-Hymner, which celebrate the universe and its divine power.
