Musikfest 5: HU is a sound of joy

Musikfest ended as it began: with a ritual. Nearly three weeks after Pierre Boulez’s Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna had transformed the auditorium of the Philharmonie into the vessel for an immersive ceremony, the same space served as the venue for Stockhausen’s INORI, a work described by the composer himself as an ‘Anbetungen’, an act (or acts) of worship. The ambitious piece, scored for a very large orchestra and two dancer-mimes, was given a performance of exceptional conviction by the orchestra of the Lucerne Festival Academy under the direction of composer, conductor and longtime Stockhausen colleague Peter Eötvös.

There is no way to describe INORI without it sounding at least faintly ridiculous. Even Stockhausen’s own description included in the programme booklet, which largely eschews the work’s spiritual side, is full of enough…