The revised version of Wolfgang Rihm’s Klanbeschreibung 2 will be premièred tomorrow, 15 June, at the Cité de la musique in Paris. François-Xavier Roth conducts the Ensemble Intercontemporain and the EXAUDI vocal ensemble.

Bálint Varga about Klangbeschreibung 2:

This piece is not a setting of Nietzsche’s poem “Der Wanderer und sein Schatten – ein Buch”; Rihm is not concerned with the intelligibility of the words. Instead, he takes single words and groups of words from the poem, to be sung by the four women’s voices. Entering into this unique world of instrumental and human sounds, the listener seems to be attending a ritual; instruments reply to one another, echo one another or serve to prompt the entries of the hovering women’s voices, either solo or in ensemble. Chords leave a single pitch remaining, sustained lengthily, only to segue to further sonic events where other instruments or voice(s) have their say. Rihm remarks, “Every sound is a sculpture of itself.”

The 66th Aldeburgh Festival will run from 7 until 23 June. The UE-highlight: the world première of Wolfgang Rihm’s A Tribute, which takes place on the last day of the festival at the Snape Maltings Concert Hall at 16:00. This orchestral piece was commissioned by the Britten Pears Foundation and the Royal Philharmonic Society to mark the centenary of Benjamin Britten and the bicentenary of the Royal Philharmonic Society.

Wolfgang Rihm: A Tribute
for orchestra | 20’
2 2 3 3 - 4 2 3 1 - timp, perc(2), hp, str
world prem. 23/6/2013, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape; Hallé Orchestra, cond. Mark Elder

Some impressions from the opening of the Wolfgang-Rihm-Forum at the University of Music in Karlsruhe on 5 April 2013. Cristine Ehman’s bust of Wolfgang Rihm, which is welded to the wall, features notes from the composer’s Opera Dionysos.

Congratulations to the RIAS Kammerchor for winning the Prix Caecilia 2013 for their recording of Wolfgang Rihm’s Astralis – choral works under Hans-Christoph Rademann.

You can listen to excerpts and order the CD here.

Jean-Guihen Queyras and the Arditti Quartett will perform the world première of Wolfgang Rihm’s first string quintet Epilog on 10 February at the Eclat festival in Stuttgart.

Wolfgang Rihm: Epilog
for string quintet | 15’
10/2/2013, ECLAT-Festival, Stuttgart; Jean-Guihen Queyras, vc; Arditti Quartet 

Gaspra for ensemble will be performed on 25 September by the TIMF Ensemble under Soo-Yeoul Choi at the Klangspuren Festival.

Other UE composers that are represented at the Klangspuren Festival are Wolfgang Rihm, Pierre Boulez, Georg Friedrich Haas and Johannes Maria Staud.

The Stiftung pro Musica e Cultura in St. Moritz, Switzerland, is holding a Lied Master Class with Wolfgang Rihm this September.

Visit the Stiftung pro Musica e Cultura website for more information, and download their flyer (PDF) in English and German.

Wolfgang Rihm’s 1978 opera Jakob Lenz comes to the English National Opera in a new translation by Richard Stokes this Tuesday.

Sam Brown directs the new production at the Hampstead Theatre.

Here’s the ENO trailer

View on YouTube

Continuing in Wolfgang Rihm’s incredibly full birthday week, the Gewandhaus Orchestra will give the world première of Samothrake for soprano and orchestra in Leipzig tonight.

Ulf Schirmer conducts and Anna Prohaska is the soloist.

See also the redesigned Gewandhaus Facebook page.

Happy 60th Birthday Wolfgang Rihm!

See also our news item.

Here is a full list of works by Wolfgang Rihm, as well as a list of forthcoming performances and our complete overview of radio broadcasts.

Our comprehensive new catalogue of Rihm's works is also online.

On the eve of his 60th birthday, three radio broadcasts portray the composer Wolfgang Rihm.

Wolfgang Rihm: Fremde Szene III
Karol Szymanowski: Mythes: 2. Narcisse
Christine Busch, vln; Conradin Brotbek, vc; Cornelis Witthoefft, pno
SWR2 | Listen live
Monday, 12.03.2012, 20:03*

Wolfgang Rihm: 3. Streichquartett
Wolfgang Rihm: Schrift-Um-Schrift
Wolfgang Rihm: Das Gehege
Andreas Göbel in conversation with the composer.
Kulturradio | Listen live
Monday, 12.03.2012, 21:04*

Wolfgang Rihm: Am Horizont
Ensemble Recherche
Arnold Schönberg: Bläserquintett
Bläserquintett Heinz Holliger
SWR2 | Listen live
Monday, 12.03.2012, 23:03*

* Vienna, Paris, Berlin time

See our overview of radio broadcasts this week.

Dutch Radio’s ZaterdagMatinee continues its series of Wolfgang Rihm concerts this Saturday with a concert performance of the 1979 opera Jakob Lenz.

Emilio Pomàrico conducts musikFabrik. Thomas Möwes, Johannes Schmidt and Daniel Kirch sing the lead roles.

Listen live on Dutch Radio 4.

The picture left shows our promotion leaflet from 1979, with Richard Salter in the lead role at the world première in Hamburg.

Happy Birthday Alban Berg! He was born on 9 February 1885, 127 years ago today.

On this day in 1945, Frank Martin’s Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke was premièred in Basel by the Basel Chamber Orchestra and Paul Sacher.

In 1949, the orchestral suite of Gottfried von Einem’s Dantons Tod was premièred in Baden Baden by the Radio Orchestra.

20 years ago today, on 9 February 1992, Wolfgang Rihm’s opera Die Eroberung von Mexiko was first heard at the Hamburg State Opera – Ingo Metzmacher conducted. Here’s a German introduction on the Deutschlandfunk radio website.

And on the same day in 1992, Arvo Pärt’s And One of the Pharisees ... was given its world première by Paul Hillier and the Theatre of Voices.

It’s the final day of the 5e Biennale de quatuors à cordes here in Paris, with two more concerts of Rihm’s string quartets.

14.30 QUATUOR CAPUÇON
including Rihm’s Fetzen 1

17:30 HAGEN QUARTET
including Rihm’s Tristesse d’une étoile and Fetzen 2

Full score of Tristesse d’une étoile

View on ISSUU.com