Franz Welser-Möst and Wolfgang Rihm before and after yesterday’s world première of Verwandlung 5 with the Cleveland Orchestra at the Musikverein, Vienna. Further performances of the orchestral piece will take place next week at the Semperoper in Dresden.

Wolfgang Rihm: Verwandlung 5
for orchestra | 11'
2 2 2 2 - 4 2 3 1 - timp, perc, str
German prem. 27.11.2013, Semperoper, Dresden; Staatskapelle Dresden, cond. Franz Welser-Möst
Further performances: 29.11.2013, 01.12.2013

Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra will première Wolfgang Rihm’s Verwandlung 5, commissioned by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, today, 20 November, at the Musikverein in Vienna. Also on the programme: Symphony No. 6 by Schostakowitsch and Beethoven’s Eroica.

Wolfgang Rihm: Verwandlung 5
for orchestra | 11'
2 2 2 2 - 4 2 3 1 - timp, perc, str
world prem. 20.11.2013, Musikverein, Vienna; Cleveland Orchestra, cond. Franz Welser-Möst

The latest Universal Edition newsletter, with information on world premières by David Fennessy, Wolfgang Rihm, Georg Friedrich Haas, and Alban Berg, is avaialble here.

Subscribe to our Newsletter.

Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker dedicated their gala concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Philharmonie on 20 October to the theme of “space music”. Among the pieces performed was the world première of Wolfgang Rihm’s IN-SCHRIFT 2. The 15-minute orchestral work is closely linked to IN-SCHRIFT, which is one Rihm’s most performed orchestral works.

(German) reviews of the evening are available on Der Tagesspiegel, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and the Berliner Zeitung.

The La Monnaie/De Munt offers a stream of the full performance of Wolfgang Rihm’s Jagden und Formen (Zustand 2008), with choreography by Sasha Waltz. The video was recorded on 14 and 15 September, Franck Ollu conducts the Orchestre symphonique de la Monnaie.

You can watch the full performance by clicking here or on the image to the right. The video will be online until 20 October 2013.

Watch the trailer for the Teatro Real’s production of Wolfgang Rihm’s Die Eroberung von Mexico [The Conquest of Mexico] here (further performances will take place today, and on 17., 18., and 19.10.2013):

Furthermore, the full study score is now available online:

Wolfgang Rihm: Die Eroberung von Mexico [The Conquest of Mexico]
opera | 120'
3 4 4 1 - 3 3 3 1 - timp, perc(5), hp, pno, e.org, e.bass(2), vln(2), vla(2), vc(6), cb(4) - wind machine
Teatro Real, Madrid; Nadja Michael/Ausrine Stundyte, Montezuma; Georg Nigl/Holger Falk, Cortez; Coro y Orquesta Titulares del Teatro Real; Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, cond. Alejo Pérez
Further performances: 15., 17., 18., and 19.10.2013

Conductor Alejo Pérez and the singers of the Conquest of Mexico; Soloists Georg Nigl (Cortéz) and Nadja Michael (Montezuma) after the première.

The Spanish première of Wolfgang Rihm’s opera Die Eroberung von Mexico [The Conquest of Mexico] on 9 October at the Teatro Real, Madrid, was a success.

Further performances of the opera will be held today, and on 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, and 19 October.

Wolfgang Rihm: Die Eroberung von Mexico [The Conquest of Mexico]
opera | 120'
3 4 4 1 - 3 3 3 1 - timp, perc(5), hp, pno, e.org, e.bass(2), vln(2), vla(2), vc(6), cb(4) - wind machine
Teatro Real, Madrid; Nadja Michael/Ausrine Stundyte, Montezuma; Georg Nigl/Holger Falk, Cortez; Coro y Orquesta Titulares del Teatro Real; Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, cond. Alejo Pérez

Congratulations to Wolfgang Rihm!

The composer has been appointed Commandeur dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres [Commander of the order of Arts and Literature], the highest distinction of this French Order, by Aurélie Filippetti, Minister of Culture and Communication.

Previous recipients of the award include T.S. Eliot, Bob Dylan, Christoph Eschenbach, Seamus Heaney, and Anne Sofie von Otter.

Tonight on Rai Radio 3, 23:00 (cet/cest): Wolfgang Rihm’s String Quartet No. 3 | “Im Innersten”, recorded on 17 October 2012 and performed by the Quartetto di Cremona.

Listen live

Tom Service’s excellent Guide to Wolfgang Rihm on the Guardian.

Wolfgang Rihm’s A Tribute was premièred on the last day of this year’s Aldeburgh Festival by Mark Elder and the Hallé Orchestra. Andrew Clements on the orchestral piece: “not specifically a tribute to Britten, but ‘a homage to English music in general’ […] It’s a teasing, almost sentimental piece.”

Read the full review on the Guardian.

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.