Wolfgang Rihm
Abkehr
Short instrumentation: 5 4 5 4 - 4 3 3 1 - timp, perc(2), hp(2), str
Duration: 8'
Instrumentation details:
1st piccolo
2nd piccolo
3rd piccolo
4th piccolo
5th piccolo
1st oboe
2nd oboe
3rd oboe
4th oboe
1st clarinet in A
2nd clarinet in A
3rd clarinet in A
4th clarinet in A
5th clarinet in A
1st bassoon
2nd bassoon
3rd bassoon
contrabassoon
1st horn in F
2nd horn in F
3rd horn in F
4th horn in F
1st trumpet in C
2nd trumpet in C
3rd trumpet in C
1st trombone
2nd trombone
3rd trombone
tuba
timpani
percussion(2)
1st harp
2nd harp
violin I
violin II
viola
violoncello
contrabass
Rihm - Abkehr for orchestra
Sample pages
Audio preview
Work introduction
The genesis of this work
was a commission from the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, asking Wolfgang Rihm to write a prologue to
Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 9. Rihm’s composition takes stock of Mahler’s
symphonic achievement and uses its often fractured language as its starting
point for his own deeply personal form of expression. The result runs the whole
gamut of styles between the extremes of weighty hammer blows and Adagio cantilena. There is a great
variety of percussive sounds, from tapping on wood to bright, metallic
striking, which occasionally form a bridge to the interjections of woodwind and
brass. The title Abkehr – literally ‘renunciation’ indicates that, for Rihm, it
was not a question of ‘turning towards’ but, on the contrary, of asserting his
own, uncompromising standpoint.