“Horizons” summarizes the most interesting events held by the Lithuanian Ensemble Network between 2009 and 2014 and documents its best recordings, including Lied and O, King by Luciano Berio, Nichtstück and Eine kleine Nachtmusik by Vykintas Baltakas and Am Horizont by Wolfgang Rihm.
Find out more on the website of the Lithuanian Ensemble Network.
La Monnaie | De Munt is offering a free stream of Wolfgang Rihm’s Jakob Lenz in Andrea Breth’s production with Wolfgang Nigl as the protagonist of the same name.
“In view of his almost overpowering esprit and charm, I was constantly asking myself how I could meet the challenge and contend with him and his works.” (Anne-Sophie Mutter)
Find out what Claudio Abbado, Irvine Arditti, Mojca Erdmann, Lucas Fels, Nicolas Hodges, Anna Prohaska, Jörg Widmann and Anne-Sophie Mutter have to say about the composer:
The problem with programming a day devoted to Wolfgang Rihm’s music is not deciding what to include, but what be can be excluded from an output of more than 400 scores. (Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 2 March 2015)
Andrew Clements of the Guardian has reviewed the Wolfgang Rihm festivities that took place on 28 February at Wigmore Hall.
Read the full review on The Guardian.
Wigmore Hall dedicates a focus day to composer Wolfgang Rihm on Saturday 28 February. Almost a dozen works from the UE catalogue will be played, among them the UK première of Rihm’s Sextett, which will be performed by clarinettist Jörg Widmann, hornist Bruno Schneider and the Quatuor Danel.
Furthermore, Wolfgang Rihm will discuss his life and works with broadcaster Tom Service (read Service’s excellent Guide to Wolfgang Rihm’s music).
Find the full programme on the Wigmore Hall website.
With Jakob Lenz, Wolfgang Rihm produced the perhaps most successful music theatre work of recent decades. On 27 February, the drama of an anguished, self-destructive psyche, which confuses dream visions with reality, is being given a new staged interpretation at La Monnaie / de Munt in Brussels with Georg Nigl as Jakob Lenz.
Andrea Breth’s highly acclaimed production premièred at the Oper Stuttgart in October 2014. Watch the trailer on YouTube:
Wolfgang Rihm: Jakob Lenz
chamber opera | 75'
27.02.2015 La Monnaie / de Munt; Georg Nigl, Lenz; Henry Waddington, Oberlin; John Graham-Hall, Kaufmann; La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra, cond. Franck Ollu
Further performances: 1., 3., 4., 6. and 7.2.2015
A full stream of Jakob Lenz will be available from 18 March – we’ll keep you posted.
Tutuguri is vast – over two hours of music in this performance – and explosively violent. (Andrew Clements, 01.02.2015, The Guardian)
The UK première of Wolfgang Rihm’s Tutuguri was performed by Kent Nagano, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Leigh Melrose (in the role of the speaker) on 31 January at the Barbican.
Andrew Clements gave a four star review, which you can read on The Guardian. Tune in to BBC Radio 3 to listen to a recording of the première. The recording will be online until 2 March.
Last but not least, we’ve uploaded the study score of the first scene for you, which you can view here.
Cornelius Meister and the ORF RSO will perform the Austrian première of Wolfgang Rihm’s Nähe fern 2 on 21 January at the Konzerthaus Wien.
Ö1 broadcasts a recording of the concert two days later, on 23 January, at 19:30.
It was not ingratiating, nor neo-Classical in the sense of offering hummable tunes in a definable style, but it was pleasing to the ear. […] The dense textures of the music were pulled apart like cotton balls to reveal the air between and around them. (Anne Midgette, The Washington Post, 15.01.2015)
Anne Midgette has reviewed the American première of Wolfgang Rihm’s Piano Concerto No. 2, which was recently given by Tzimon Barto and the NSO under Christoph Eschenbach at The Kennedy Center in Washington. A second performance of the concerto will take place this Saturday.
Read the full review on the website of The Washington Post.
Renaud Capuçon with Wolfgang Rihm rehearsing for the world première of Rihm’s Gedicht des Malers, which will premièred by Capuçon, Philippe Jordan and the Wiener Symphoniker this Friday, 9 January, at the Wiener Konzerthaus. A second performance of the orchestral work will take place on Saturday, 10 January.
The composer said that he imagined Max Beckmann portraying Eugène Ysaÿe when he composed the work (Beckmann had portrayed Max Reger one year after the composer’s death).
The soloist virtually embodies the painter’s brush as it moves across the canvas in sometimes faster and sometimes more deliberate ways.
Wolfgang Rihm’s Jagden und Formen is a piece that has literally grown out of three originally independent works which here interweave with and nourish one another.
Sasha’s Waltz’s choreographic work of the same name, which transformed the work’s implicit gestures into dance, will be performed by Sasha Waltz & Guests and Ensemble Modern on 27, 29 and 30 November at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
Watch the trailer of Jagden und Formen:
The Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz dedicates its composer portrait of 2014/2015 to Wolfgang Rihm, whose orchestral pieces Nähe fern 1 and Nähe fern 4 will be performed for the very first time in Germany on 14 and 15 November. Also on the programme: performances of Nähe fern 2 and 3 and Chiffre I and II. The Nähe fern compositionswill be performed togetherwith Brahms’ four Symphonies, Karl-Heinz Steffens conducts the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz.
Rihm’s compositions will be present with the orchestra throughout the year, for example at the Modern Times festival and the series Rebellion im Quadrat.
Find out more on the website of the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz.
Our deepest congratulations to Wolfgang Rihm for being awarded the Robert Schumann Prize for Poetry and Music. The ceremony was held on 6 November at the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz.
After Eleonore Büning gave a speech in honour of the composer, his works Harzreise im Winter, Sehnsucht und Nachtgesang and 3 Sonette von Michaelangelo were performed by baritone Hans Christoph Begemann and pianist Thomas Seyboldt.
Thanks to Sebastian Solte of bastille musique for taking and sending us the photos.
From 7 to 9 November, the Oper Stuttgart honours Wolfgang Rihm with a composer weekend during which a selection of the composer’s works will be performed – among them Gesungene Zeit, his Fetzen and the Wölfli-Lieder –andfilm screenings will take place.
After the very successful première of Jakob Lenz on 25 October (a collection of [German] reviews can be found on the blog of the Oper Stuttgart), Georg Nigl returns to the stage as Lenz on 8 November.
Watch the trailer for the production on YouTube:
Wolfgang Rihm: Jakob Lenz
chamber opera | 75'
08.11.2014, Oper Stuttgart; Georg Nigl, Lenz; Henry Waddington, Oberlin; John Graham-Hall, Kaufmann; Staatsorchester Stuttgart, cond. Franck Ollu
Further performances: 13., 17., 21.11.2014; 15.12.2014
On 6 November, Wolfgang Rihm will receive the Robert Schumann Prize at the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. The prize is awarded every two years and was first received by Pierre Boulez on 1 December 2012.
Find out more on the website of the Academy of Sciences and Literature.