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Wolfgang Rihm

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Wolfgang Rihm
Rihm at the Kölner Philharmonie in 2007
Born(1952-03-13)13 March 1952
Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Died27 July 2024(2024-07-27) (aged 72)
Ettlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
EducationHochschule für Musik Karlsruhe
Occupations
  • Composer
  • academic teacher
OrganizationsHochschule für Musik Karlsruhe
Known for
WorksList of compositions
Awards

Wolfgang Rihm[needs IPA] (13 March 1952 – 27 July 2024) was a German composer of contemporary classical music and an academic teacher based in Karlsruhe. One of the most influential post-war European composers, he wrote more than 500 works and was particularly known for his operas.[1] The premiere of Rihm's Morphonie at the 1974 Donaueschingen Festival won him international recognition. Rihm pursued a freedom of expression, combining avant-garde techniques with emotional individuality. His chamber opera Jakob Lenz was premiered in 1977, exploring the inner conflict of a poet's soul. When his opera Dionysos was first performed at the Salzburg Festival in 2010, it was voted World Premiere of the Year by Opernwelt.

Rihm was the musical director of the Institute of New Music and Media at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe and was a composer in residence at the Lucerne Festival and the Salzburg Festival. He was honoured as an officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2001 and received the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2003.

Biography

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Youth, studies, and early work

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Rihm was born in Karlsruhe on 13 March 1952.[2] He began to compose at age eleven.[3] He wrote a plan for a mass the following year and won with a cello sonata at the Jugend musiziert competition when he was 16.[4] He wrote his second string quartet at age 18.

At the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, he studied music theory and composition with Eugen Werner Velte [de] while still in secondary school.[5] He took his undergraduate final exams in 1972, about the time he graduated secondary school. He studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne from 1972 to 1973.[4] Rihm then enrolled at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg from 1973 to 1976, studying composition with Klaus Huber[6] and musicology with Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht.[4] His other teachers included Wolfgang Fortner and Humphrey Searle.[7]

Initial successes and teaching

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The premiere of Rihm's Morphonie at the 1974 Donaueschingen Festival launched his career in the European new music scene.[8] It was regarded as "indecently individual" ("unanständig individuell"). Rihm pursued an expressive freedom in clear opposition to established norms.[4] He combined the techniques of then contemporary classical music with the emotional volatility of Gustav Mahler and the musical expressionism of Arnold Schönberg. Rihm later cited Claude Debussy, saying that Debussy and the expressionist Schönberg combined "minimal formalism and system with maximal expression".[9] Many regarded this as a revolt against the early Darmstadt School generation of Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez.[4]

Positive reviews of his early work led to a large number of commissions in the following years. His chamber opera Jakob Lenz premiered in 1977; it explores the inner conflict of a poet's soul without following a linear narrative.[10] In 1978 he became a lecturer at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse.[11] Then, from 1985 onward, he was a composition professor at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe,[12] succeeding his teacher Velte.[4] Rihm followed Velte's approach of educating in open dialogue with the individual student, cultivating freedom of thought.[4]

His opera Die Hamletmaschine (1983–1986, text by Heiner Müller) premiered at the Nationaltheater Mannheim in 1987. It was described as a "total theatre of sound" and a "non-narrative, ritualistic drama" reminiscent of Stockhausen.[13] Rihm's work continued in an expressionist vein, though the influence of Luigi Nono, Helmut Lachenmann, and Morton Feldman, amongst others, affected his style significantly.

Rihm was extremely prolific, and much of his music has yet to be commercially recorded. His important works include thirteen string quartets, the opera Die Eroberung von Mexico (1987–1991, based on texts by Antonin Artaud), over twenty song cycles, the oratorio Deus Passus (1999–2000, commissioned by the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart), Jagden und Formen for chamber orchestra (1995–2001), more than thirty concertos, and a series of interrelated orchestral works bearing the general title Vers une symphonie fleuve ("Towards a river symphony").

He sometimes revised or adapted his finished work. For example, in 1992 he completely rewrote Ins Offene ... for orchestra (1990) and used it as the basis for his piano concerto Sphere (1994). Then he recast the piano part of Sphere to create Nachstudie for solo piano (1994). In 2002, he wrote Sphäre nach Studie (a new version of Nachstudie) for harp, two double basses, piano, and percussion, as well as Sphäre um Sphäre (a new version of Sphere) for two pianos and chamber ensemble.

International successes and honors

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At Walter Fink's invitation, Rihm was the fifth composer featured in the 1995 Komponistenporträt of the annual Rheingau Musik Festival.[14] The same year, he contributed Communio (Lux aeterna) to the Requiem of Reconciliation.[15] The Free University of Berlin awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1998.[16]

In 2003 Rihm received the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize.[17] The New York Philharmonic commissioned and premiered his Two Other Movements in 2004. Matthias Rexroth sang his KOLONOS | 2 Fragments by Hölderlin after Sophokles (2008) for countertenor and small orchestra in 2008 at the Bad Wildbad Kurhaus, with Antonino Fogliani conducting the Virtuosi Brunensis.[18][19]

In March 2010, the BBC Symphony Orchestra featured Rihm's music in one of their 'total immersion' weekends at the Barbican Centre in London. Using recordings from that weekend, BBC Radio 3 dedicated three Hear and Now programmed to his work.[20]

On 27 July 2010, his opera Dionysos (on Nietzsche's late cycle of poems Dionysian-Dithyrambs) was premiered at the Salzburg Festival by Ingo Metzmacher with sets designed by Jonathan Meese.[21][22] In Opernwelt magazine, this performance was voted 2010/2011 World Premiere of the Year (German: Uraufführung des Jahres).[23]

The Trio Accanto premiered his Gegenstück (2006, rev. 2010) for bass saxophone, percussion, and piano on 16 August 2010, celebrating the 80th birthday of Walter Fink.[24] Anne-Sophie Mutter and the New York Philharmonic premiered his violin concerto Lichtes Spiel (English: Light Games) in Avery Fisher Hall on 18 November 2010.[25]

Final years and legacy

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Starting in 2016, Rihm held a composition seminar in Lucerne.[4] He wrote and dedicated Concerto en Sol to cellist Sol Gabetta in 2020. It was reviewed as as a radiant musical portrait.[26] Among his last works were a Stabat Mater and the song cycle Terzinen an den Tod.[4]

Rihm died in Ettlingen near Karlsruhe on 27 July 2024, at the age of 72,[10][4][3] after a struggle with cancer for two decades.[10] His students included Rebecca Saunders, David Philip Hefti, Márton Illés, and Jörg Widmann.[a]

Compositions and style

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Main article: List of compositions by Wolfgang Rihm

Rihm composed more than 500 works and was particularly known for his operas.[28] 460 of his works were published, and manuscripts are held by the Paul Sacher Foundation.[4]

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, his name was associated with the movement called New Simplicity (Neue Einfachheit), a term popularized by Aribert Reimann.[29] Writing in 1977, Rihm suggested instead New Multiplicity (Neue Viefalt) or New Clarity (Neue Eindeutigkeit), since his music was not well described as simple.[30]

In the 1980s, Rihm's music was newly described as representing "New Subjectivity" or Neo-expressionism, with its "free figuration, emotional pathos, ... and ... clear individualization", sometimes in relation to contemporaneous art schools like Junge Wilde (also known as Neue Wilde) in Germany or the Transavantgarde (also known as Arte Cifra or Transavantguardia) in Italy.[31] However, Rihm did not seek to belong to any school and said that such things "must not be looked for" in his music.[31] Nonetheless, Yves Knockaert considered that there were important stylistic and philosophical similarities, especially between Rihm's music and the work of Georg Baselitz.[31]

Rihm once said he sought "a new kind of coherence, no longer only restricted to process". He experimented with "loosening" coherence in his "Notebook Compositions", viz. the Musik for dress Streicher (1977), Zwischenblick: "Selbthenker!" for string quartet (1983–1984) and the String Quartets Nos. 5 and 6. In these, he composed the final version without precomposition, sketches, revision, or correction. Yves Knockaert compared his manner of writing here to the expressionist Schönberg.[32]

He also experimented with writing musical fragments, for example in his Alexanderlieder (1975–1976, described as a "... fragmentary song accompaniment"), cuts and dissolves for orchestra (1976–1977), Bagatelles (1977–1978), Lenz-Fragmente (1980), or more recently Fetzen (Scraps) for string quartet and accordion (1999–2004).[33]

The Guardian described his mature work as comprising a "bewildering variety of styles and sounds".[34]

Awards

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Honorary doctorates

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Memberships

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Notable students

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For Rihm's notable students, see List of music students by teacher: R to S § Wolfgang Rihm.

Compositions

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Main article: List of compositions by Wolfgang Rihm

Rihm composed more than 500 works and was particularly known for his operas.[28] 460 of his works were published, and manuscripts are held by the Paul Sacher Foundation.[4]

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, his name was associated with the movement called New Simplicity.[43] The Guardian described his later work as comprising a "bewildering variety of styles and sounds".[34] Among his last works are a Stabat Mater and a song cycle, Terzinen an den Tod.[4]

Writings

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  • Rihm, Wolfgang (1997). Mosch, Ulrich (ed.). Ausgesprochen: Schriften und Gespräche (in German). Winterthur: Amadeus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7957-0395-0.
  • Rihm, Wolfgang; Brinkmann, Reinhold (2001). Musik Nachdenken: Reinhold Brinkmann und Wolfgang Rihm im Gespräch (in German). Regensburg: ConBrio Verlag. ISBN 978-3-932581-47-2.
  • Rihm, Wolfgang (2002). Mosch, Ulrich (ed.). Offene Enden: Denkbewegungen um und durch Musik (in German). Munich: Hanser Verlag. ISBN 978-3-446-20142-2.

Notes

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  1. ^ Widmann characterized Rihm as "partially manic-obsessive and always extreme".[27]

References

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  1. ^ Häusler 2005.
  2. ^ Fulker 2017; Brachmann 2024; Büning 2024.
  3. ^ a b Leyrer 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Büning 2024.
  5. ^ Brachmann 2024; Leyrer 2024.
  6. ^ Büning 2024; Hagedorn 2012.
  7. ^ Angermann 2016.
  8. ^ Büning 2012.
  9. ^ Knockaert 2017, 22, 60.
  10. ^ a b c Brachmann 2024.
  11. ^ Fulker 2017.
  12. ^ Leyrer 2024; Hagedorn 2012.
  13. ^ Warrack, John and West, Ewan (eds.) (1996). "Rihm, Wolfgang", Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera, p. 432. Oxford University Press.
  14. ^ Universal Edition 2024.
  15. ^ Rihm, Wolfgang (18 August 1995). "Communio (Lux aeterna)". ircam.fr. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 27 July 2024.
  16. ^ Dümling, Albrecht (23 November 1998). "Der Ort der Musik". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Berlin. Archived from the original on 24 October 2019. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
  17. ^ Schwenger, Dietmar (31 January 2003). "Wolfgang Rihm erhält Ernst von Siemens Musikpreis". Musikwoche (in German). Munich. Archived from the original on 24 October 2019. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
  18. ^ "Wolfgang Rihm: KOLONOS". universaledition.com. Vienna: Universal Edition. 2008. Archived from the original on 14 September 2023. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  19. ^ Wilske, Hermann (30 September 2008). "Rossini und Rihm in Wildbad". neue musikzeitung. Regensburg. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  20. ^ Hear and Now: Wolfgang Rihm: Episode 1 Archived 17 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine BBC, March 2010
  21. ^ Büning 2010.
  22. ^ Tommasini, Anthony (1 August 2010). "A Nietzschean Plunge Into Sensual Labyrinths". The New York Times. New York City. Archived from the original on 14 September 2023. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  23. ^ "Das Herz der Opernwelt schlägt nun in Brüssel". Badische Zeitung (in German). Freiburg. 29 October 2011. Archived from the original on 2 September 2017. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  24. ^ Hauff, Andreas (8 September 2010). "Ehrungen und Raritäten. Die Endphase beim Rheingau-Musik-Festival". nmz online (in German). neue musikzeitung. Archived from the original on 27 September 2010. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  25. ^ Vivien Schweitzer (19 November 2010). "Pairing Wolfgangs From Two Eras". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 16 February 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  26. ^ Schacher, Thomas (3 February 2020). "Wo viel Licht ist, sollte auch ein bisschen Schatten sein". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 30 July 2024.
  27. ^ "Jörg Widmann zum Tod von Wolfgang Rihm: "Teilweise manisch-obsessiv und immer extrem"". ARD Audiothek (in German). 29 July 2024. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  28. ^ a b Mattenberger 2019.
  29. ^ Heidenreich 2000, 12; Knockaert 2017.
  30. ^ Knockaert 2017, 12.
  31. ^ a b c Knockaert 2017, 16.
  32. ^ Knockaert 2017, 22.
  33. ^ Knockaert 2017, 37–38.
  34. ^ a b Service 2012.
  35. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Karlsruhe 2024.
  36. ^ "Pour le Mérite: Wolfgang Rihm" (PDF). www.orden-pourlemerite.de. 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 July 2020. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  37. ^ "Bayerischer Maximiliansorden für Jens Malte Fischer und Wolfgang Rihm". Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz (in German). 5 December 2014. Archived from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  38. ^ "Wolfgang Rihm erhält den Robert Schumann-Preis für Dichtung und Musik". Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz (in German). 28 October 2014. Archived from the original on 28 July 2024. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  39. ^ Neuhoff, Bernhard (28 February 2019). "Wolfgang Rihm erhält Deutschen Musikautorenpreis: "Meine Musik ist nicht ängstlich"". br-klassik (in German). Archived from the original on 16 July 2020. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  40. ^ a b c d "Rihm". Akademie der Künste, Berlin (in German). Archived from the original on 16 July 2020. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  41. ^ "Wolfgang Rihm". Freie Akademie der Künste Hamburg (in German). 3 October 2021. Archived from the original on 15 January 2022. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  42. ^ "Members". European Academy of Sciences and Arts. Archived from the original on 8 March 2022. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  43. ^ Heidenreich 2000.

Cited sources

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Obituaries

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Further reading

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