Berliner Philharmonie tickets 2 September 2026 - Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra | GoComGo.com

Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra

Berliner Philharmonie, Main Auditorium, Berlin, Germany
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7 PM
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US$ 97

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You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Important Info
Type: Classical Concert
City: Berlin, Germany
Starts at: 19:00
Duration: 2h 30min

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Cast
Performers
Conductor: Jörg Widmann
Orchestra: Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO)
Programme
Overview

Programme
Wolfgang Rihm (1952–2024)
Tutuguri (1980–82) 
Poème dansé based on the poem Tutuguri from the audio play Pour en finir avec le jugement de dieu by Antonin Artaud  
for large orchestra, drums, taped choir and speaker 
concert performance 

I. Scene (Invocation … the black hole …)
II. Scene (black and red dances … the horse …)
III. Scene (the peyote dance … the last sun … the screaming man …)
IV. Scene (crosses … the horseshoe … the six men … the seventh …)

The Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra and its new musical director Jörg Widmann bring an intensely impactful work to the Musikfest Berlin: Tutuguri by Wolfgang Rihm. The poème dansé activates a powerful battery of percussion and translates the “fevered pulse” of the eponymous poem by Antonin Artaud – which was inspired by the ritual Tutugúri dances of the indigenous people of northern Mexico, into captivating music.
Tutuguri remains an exceptional phenomenon both within the oeuvre of the composer, who died in 2024, and in European music history as a whole. No other work unleashes such unruly elemental forces, and nowhere else do we see rhythm and the awe-inspiring use of percussion take such a central role as in this score, whose 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 has been artistic director since 2026.

Venue Info

Berliner Philharmonie - Berlin
Location   Herbert-von-Karajan-Str. 1

The Berliner Philharmonie is a concert hall in Berlin, Germany and home to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The Philharmonie lies on the south edge of the city's Tiergarten and just west of the former Berlin Wall. The Philharmonie is on Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, named for the orchestra's longest-serving principal conductor. The building forms part of the Kulturforum complex of cultural institutions close to Potsdamer Platz.

The Philharmonie consists of two venues, the Grand Hall (Großer Saal) with 2,440 seats and the Chamber Music Hall (Kammermusiksaal) with 1,180 seats. Though conceived together, the smaller hall was opened in the 1980s, some twenty years after the main building.

Hans Scharoun designed the building, which was constructed over the years 1960–1963. It opened on 15 October 1963 with Herbert von Karajan conducting Beethoven's 9th Symphony. It was built to replace the old Philharmonie, destroyed by British bombers on 30 January 1944, the eleventh anniversary of Hitler becoming Chancellor. The hall is a singular building, asymmetrical and tentlike, with the main concert hall in the shape of a pentagon. The height of the rows of seats increases irregularly with distance from the stage. The stage is at the centre of the hall, surrounded by seating on all sides. The so-called vineyard-style seating arrangement (with terraces rising around a central orchestral platform) was pioneered by this building, and became a model for other concert halls, including the Sydney Opera House (1973), Denver's Boettcher Concert Hall (1978), the Gewandhaus in Leipzig (1981), Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (2003), and the Philharmonie de Paris (2014).

Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck and his quartet recorded three live performances at the hall; Dave Brubeck in Berlin (1964), Live at the Berlin Philharmonie (1970), and We're All Together Again for the First Time (1973). Miles Davis's 1969 live performance at the hall has also been released on DVD.

On 20 May 2008 a fire broke out at the hall. A quarter of the roof suffered considerable damage as firefighters cut openings to reach the flames beneath the roof. The hall interior sustained water damage but was otherwise "generally unharmed". Firefighters limited damage using foam. The cause of the fire was attributed to welding work, and no serious damage was caused either to the structure or interior of the building. Performances resumed, as scheduled, on 1 June 2008 with a concert by the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra.

The main organ was built by Karl Schuke, Berlin, in 1965, and renovated in 1992, 2012 and 2016. It has four manuals and 91 stops. The pipes of the choir organs and the Tuba 16' and Tuba 8' stops are not assigned to any group and can be played from all four manuals and the pedals.

Important Info
Type: Classical Concert
City: Berlin, Germany
Starts at: 19:00
Duration: 2h 30min
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