Browse by Artist: RIHM, WOLFGANG

Artist:	RIHM, WOLFGANG
Title:	Streichquartette Nr. 1,4,8,5
Label:	CYBELE RECORDS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD/SACD
Price:	$21.00
Catalog #:	CYBELE 261101CD

"The string quartet takes a prominent place among Wolfgang Rihm's immense output. Already in his earliest compositional phase, at the age of 14, 15, 16, Rihm, born in Karlsruhe in 1952, wrote his first quartets, although the scores of these works were not published. In 1970 he published his First String Quartet which was given the opus number 2. This piece, whose tonal language is akin to that of the Second Viennese School with an orientation toward twelve-tone structure and with a predominance of sevenths, ninths and tritones, has a texture which is at times quite thinned out and which then suddenly breaks apart all together: 'As if suddenly destroyed: eradicated' is written above measure 109 in the score, after which the final five bars continue, bearing the marking: 'tense!' Fermata rests, hesitating echos of previous material and the abruptly erupting last chord. Following the Second String Quartet, also written in 1970 and bearing the marking 'opus 10,' and the Third String Quartet, 'im innersten' (with utmost intimacy), which was written in 1976, Rihm in the Winter of 1980/81 turned his attention to his Fourth String Quartet in three movements: I. 'agitato, allegro alia marcia, allegro ma non troppo'; II. 'con moto, allegro andante, allegro molto'; III. 'adagio,' Rihm noted, 'It is at once a straggler and at the same time a hint of things to come.' On the one hand it condenses the confrontation with tradition which was addressed in the first three quartets and is reminiscent of works such as the late Beethoven Quartets, of Mahler, of Shostakovitch and of Janacek's Second Quartet, 'Intimate Letters' (1928). On the other hand however, it also anticipates aspects which later became the subsequent quartets. For example, the first bar of the Eighth String Quartet followed by a general pause, echoes the softly floating final repetitions in the viola and cello from Rihm's Fourth Quartet. Also Rihm's Fifth through Seventh Quartets seem to be drawn from the Fourth, although the music of the later quartets employs more fissured textures and is more gestural than its older relatives. Nonetheless, the Fourth Quartet is not merely a transitional piece or a hinge-composition, but a work with its own integrity and which in addition is a turbulent piece with many riddles which only in the future will (perhaps?) be unrivaled." Stereo/multichannel hybrid SACD that can be played on any CD player.

Artist:	RIHM, WOLFGANG
Title:	Piano Pieces
Label:	NEOS (GERMANY)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$42.00
Catalog #:	NEOS 10717/8CD

Performed by Markus Bellheim, piano; recorded 2007/2008. "Wolfgang Rihm was born in 1952 in Karlsruhe; between 1968-1976 he studied Composition in Karlsruhe, Cologne and Freiburg with Eugen Werner Velte, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Klaus Huber, Wolfgang Fortner and Humphrey Searle. In Freiburg he also studied musicology with Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht. Various stipendiary grants (Villa Massimo, Rome, e.g.) and awards followed, including the Rolf Liebermann Prize, the Jacob Burckhardt Prize given by the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Foundation, the Bach Prize of the City of Hamburg, the Federal Cross of Merit and the 2003 Ernst von Siemens Foundation Prize. From 1978 onwards, Rihm has taught at the International Summer Courses in Darmstadt, and since 1973 in Karlsruhe, where he was given a professorship in composition in 1985. He is a member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and of the Academy of Arts in Berlin and Mannheim. A number of festivals and concert series have been dedicated to the music of Wolfgang Rihm."

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