Thursday
September 4, 2025
Tickets can be purchased via the link below each concert/event.
Subject to change without notice
Throughout the festival
Book of the Year and Image of the Year
Book of the year: Jonas Eika: Open Skies (2024)
Image of the year: Henrik Schouboe: Spring (1906)
At 14.00
Inauguration of Rued Langgaard's renovated piano
Café Rued
Throughout his life, Rued Langgaard owned a Bechstein grand piano from the 1890s. It has now undergone a historically conscious renovation at the Bechstein factory in Germany, restoring the instrument to a condition reminiscent of what Rued Langgaard experienced in his time.
Piano music by Tekla Griebel Wandall, Ludolf Nielsen and Rued Langgaard.
Christian Westergaard, piano.
Free access
At 16:30
Festival opening - Domkirkepladsen sings
Ribe Cathedral Square
Carl Nielsen, Our Great Composer is one of Rued Langgaard's most absurd and humorous works. In the score, Langgaard has noted that it must be "repeated for all eternity". In a performance created for the occasion, the entire cathedral square is used.
Also hear a world premiere by Niels Lyne Løkkegaard, inspired by the folk song Dronning Dagmar ligger udi Ribe syg, which also features in music by Rued Langgaard.
Jonas Hunt: Langgaard-Fanfare (2024) over "The Great Master is coming" BVN 175 (2´). New arrangement for Musikkorps. Utilization.
Opening speech by Merete Jankowski, Director of Museum VEST.
Rued Langgaard: The Great Master is coming. Motet (church melody) (B.S. Ingemann) BVN 175 (1922). Four verses. Solo, choir, tutti. Arrangement by Jonas Hunt. New arrangement for Musikkorps. World premiere.
Rued Langgaard's bench. By Esben Tange, director of Rued Langgaard Festival.
Rued Langgaard: Ribe, early morning BVN 386 (1949) (6')
- Along the churchyard: Moderato
- Wild ducks: Andantino scherzoso
- Minuet: Andante
2 cornets and 2 trombones. Alternatively, Mogens Andresen's arrangement for brass quintet.
Jonas Eika reads from Open Heaven, a fantasy about the Christian women's movement the Beguines (3')
Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard: Rued Langgaard's bench In Echoes of Ribe, early morning (3') World premiere.
For the Queen Dagmar carillon in Ribe Cathedral, soundbox and solo cornet (from Prinsens Musikkorps) in the equestrian spire
Rued Langgaard: Carl Nielsen, our great composer BVN 355 (1948). Arrangement for band and choir by Lasse Toft Eriksen (2015). Walk around the Cathedral (10´).
Benjamin Friis Nielsen: Elegy - Death of Dagmar (2023) in arrangement for band by (Lasse Toft Eriksen). World premiere (2')
The folk song Queen Dagmar is located in Ribe syg. Children's choir, boys' choir, girls' choir, youth choir, men's choir, women's choir, adult choir, folk choir and marching band. Arrangement by Rued Langgaard, Benjamin Friis Nielsen (Lasse Toft Eriksen). World premiere (4')
- Our Savior's Church Choir
- Youth Choir Aarhus U
- Ribe Domkirkes girl choir, Youth choir, Chamber choir
- Festival choirs and folk choirs.
- The Prince's Music Corps
Conductor: Magnus Larsson
Free access
8:00 p.m.
Insectarium
Sct. Catharinæ Church
In Carnaval, Insektarium and Le Béguinage, which are characterized by religious doubts, Robert Schumann and Rued Langgaard hide behind masks and mystery. But it is precisely in the mystery that glimpses of the human behind the notes are revealed. Tekla Griebel Wandall was also interested in hidden forces. In four pieces composed at the end of her life, we become part of a haunting nature.
Tekla Griebel Wandall: Piano Compositions I - II (1928-29) Excerpt
- The wild bog
- Night
- Clouds
- In the Danish Summer Night. Aphorism
Robert Schumann: Carnaval Op. 9 (1834-35) (29') 21 small pieces
- Preamble
- Pierrot
- Harlequin
- Noble Waltz
- Eusebius
- Florestan
- Coquette
- Replica
- Sphinxes
- Butterflies
- S.C.H.S.C.H.A. (Lettres dansantes)
- Chiarina
- Chopin
- Estrella
- Recognition
- Trousers and Columbine
- German Waltz - Intermezzo: Paganini
- Aveu
- Promenade
- Pause
- Davidsbündler" march against the Philistines
Pause
Rued Langgaard: Insectarium (10')
- Forficula auricularia (Earwig): Tempo ad libitum
- Acridium migratorium (Migratory Grasshopper): Mosso! Mosso.
- Melnetha vulgaris (Oldenborre): Rubato
- Tipula oleracea (Sticklebone)
- Libellula depressa (Dragonfly): Presto
- Anobium pertinax (Skullwort): Tempo ad libitum
- Musca domestica (House Fly): Agitato - Slow - Tempo I
- Julus terrestis (Centipede): Prestissimo
- Culex pipiens (Mosquito)
Along the way L'Alouette Lulu (night owl) from Olivier Messiaen: The Bird Catalog (8')
Edvard Grieg: Dream Vision
Rued Langgaard: The Beguinage (16')
- Andante marcato - Lento - Andante
- ¼ = 60
- ¼ = 96 Gradually as fast as possible
- Quasi organo! - "End" - Slow down, grazioso!
- ¼ = 92 - Slower - ¼ = 69 - Slower
Kristoffer Hyldig, piano.
Visual staging: Lene Juhl
At 22.00
Langgaard Lounge
Café Rued, Porsborg
Meet a number of today's artists who will answer questions from the audience while we enjoy a Rued Langgaard porter from Ribe Bryghus. And hear excerpts from Niels W. Gade's cantata Psyche (1883), which Rued Langgaard loved. In the late work by Gade, we are in Greek mythology, where Psyche is a personification of the human soul. Interview with Karsten Eskildsen, who has edited a new edition of Psyche.
Louise McClelland, soprano
David Danholt, tenor
Berit Johansen Tange, piano
Host: Karen Bendix
Free access
Day program 2025
Rued Langgard Festival in Ribe, September 4-7
Thursday
Fridays
SATURDAY
Sunday
Venues
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The festival is supported by
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