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.”