Wolfgang Rihm | |
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 Rihm at theKölner Philharmonie in 2007 | |
| Born | (1952-03-13)13 March 1952 Karlsruhe, Württemberg-Baden,West Germany |
| Died | 27 July 2024(2024-07-27) (aged 72) Ettlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany |
| Education | Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe |
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| Known for | |
| Works | List of compositions |
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Wolfgang Michael Rihm (German:[ˈvɔlfɡaŋˈʁiːm]ⓘ; 13 March 1952 – 27 July 2024) was a German composer ofcontemporary classical music and an academic teacher based inKarlsruhe. He was an influential post-war European composer, as "one of the most original and independent musical voices" there,[1] composing over 500 works including several operas.
The premiere of Rihm'sMorphonie for orchestra at the 1974Donaueschingen Festival won him international recognition. Rihm pursued a freedom of expression, combiningavant-garde techniques with emotional individuality. His chamber operaJakob Lenz was premiered in 1977, exploring the inner conflict of a poet's soul. The premiere of his operaOedipus atDeutsche Oper Berlin in 1987 was broadcast live and recorded as DVD. When his operaDionysos was first performed at theSalzburg Festival in 2010, it was voted World Premiere of the Year byOpernwelt. He was commissioned to compose a work for the opening of theElbphilharmonie, and created the song cycleReminiszenz which was premiered in 2017.
Rihm was professor of composition at theHochschule für Musik Karlsruhe from 1985, with students includingRebecca Saunders andJörg Widmann. He was composer in residence for theBBC, at theLucerne Festival and the Salzburg Festival. He was honoured as an officer of theOrdre des Arts et des Lettres in 2001 and received theErnst von Siemens Music Prize in 2003.
Rihm was born inKarlsruhe on 13 March 1952.[2] His parents were Julius Rihm, a treasurer for theRed Cross, and Margarete, a homemaker.[1] He grew up with a sister, Monika.[1] The boy began to compose at age eleven,[3] and wrote a plan for amass the following year.[4] He was an enthusiastic choir singer, and he often improvised on the organ, creating "sound orgies" in the style of French organists.[5] Hiscello sonata earned him a prize at theJugend musiziert competition at age 16. He wrote his secondstring quartet at age 18.[6]
At theHochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, he studied music theory and composition withEugen Werner Velte [de] while still attending secondary school.[7] He took his undergraduate final exams in 1972, when he graduated from secondary school. He attended theDarmstädter Ferienkurse from 1970 and studied withKarlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne from 1972 to 1973.[5] Rihm then enrolled at theHochschule für Musik Freiburg from 1973 to 1976, studying composition withKlaus Huber[8] and musicology withHans Heinrich Eggebrecht.[4] His other teachers includedWolfgang Fortner andHumphrey Searle.[9]
The premiere of Rihm'sMorphonie at the 1974Donaueschingen Festival launched his career in the European new music scene.[10] It was regarded as "indecently individual" ("unanständig individuell"). Rihm pursued expressive freedom in clear opposition to established norms.[4] He combined the techniques of then-contemporary classical music with the emotional volatility ofGustav Mahler and themusical expressionism ofArnold Schönberg. Rihm later citedClaude Debussy, saying that Debussy and the expressionist Schönberg combined "minimal formalism and system with the maximal expression".[11] Many regarded this as a revolt against the earlyDarmstadt School generation of Stockhausen andPierre Boulez.[12]
HisDis-Kontur (1974) has been described as "rusty and brutal",[13] "channeling primal acoustic violence".[1] WhenSub-Kontur (1975) was premiered in Donaueschingen (1976), the audience complained about Rihm's "brutal noise". Some critics called it a "fecal piece".[14] But positive reviews of his early work led to many commissions in the following years. His chamber operaJakob Lenz premiered in 1977; it explores the inner conflict of a poet's soul without following a linear narrative.[6]
In 1978 he became a lecturer at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse.[15] From 1985 onward, he was a composition professor at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe,[16] succeeding his teacher Velte.[4] Rihm followed Velte's approach of educating in open dialogue with the individual student, cultivating freedom of thought.[4]
His operaDie Hamletmaschine, composed between 1983 and 1986 based on Heiner Müller's play,Hamletmachine, premiered at theNationaltheater Mannheim in 1987. It was described as a "total theatre of sound" and a "non-narrative, ritualistic drama" reminiscent of Stockhausen.[17] He based the libretto for his operaOedipus, commissioned byDeutsche Oper Berlin onthe Greek tragedy by Sophocles and related texts byFriedrich Nietzsche andHeiner Müller.[18] The premiere in October 1987, directed byGötz Friedrich, was broadcast live and recorded as DVD.[19] Rihm's work continued in an expressionist vein. However, the influence ofLuigi Nono,Helmut Lachenmann, andMorton Feldman, amongst others, affected his style significantly.[20][21]
AtWalter Fink's invitation, Rihm was the fifth composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of theRheingau Musik Festival in 1995.[22] The same year, he contributedCommunio (Lux aeterna) to theRequiem of Reconciliation.[23] TheFree University of Berlin awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1998.[24]
In 2003 Rihm received theErnst von Siemens Music Prize, as
... one of the most prolific and versatile composers of our time. With inexhaustible imagination, a vital creative drive and keen self-reflection, he has created an oeuvre rich in facets, which already comprises over four hundred compositions from all musical genres. Rihm's music manifests his belief in the indestructible existence of the creative individual, who is able to assert his strength and dignity against all external threats.[a][25]
TheNew York Philharmonic commissioned and premiered hisTwo Other Movements in 2004.Matthias Rexroth sang hisKolonos | 2 Fragments by Hölderlin after Sophokles forcountertenor and small orchestra in 2008 at theBad Wildbad Kurhaus, withAntonino Fogliani conducting the Virtuosi Brunensis.[26][27]
In 2009 Rihm's operaProserpina[28] premiered successfully at theSchwetzingen Festival.[29]
In March 2010, theBBC Symphony Orchestra featured Rihm's music in one of their 'total immersion' weekends at theBarbican Centre in London. Using recordings from that weekend,BBC Radio 3 dedicated threeHear and Now programmed to his work.[30]
On 27 July 2010, his operaDionysos (on Nietzsche's late cycle of poemsDionysian-Dithyrambs) was premiered at theSalzburg Festival byIngo Metzmacher with sets designed byJonathan Meese.[31][32] InOpernwelt magazine, this performance was voted by critics World Premiere of the Year.[33]
TheTrio Accanto premiered hisGegenstück (2006,rev. 2010) for bass saxophone, percussion, and piano on 16 August 2010, celebrating the 80th birthday of Walter Fink.[34]Anne-Sophie Mutter and theNew York Philharmonic premiered his violin concertoLichtes Spiel (Light Games) inAvery Fisher Hall on 18 November 2010.[35]
In 2016 Rihm became artistic director of theLucerne Festival Academy where young musicians, directors and composers are trained in music of the 20th and 21st centuries.[1] On 11 January 2017, theElbphilharmonie in Hamburg was inaugurated with the premiere ofReminiszenz, asong cycle fortenor and large orchestra that he composed on a commission for the occasion.[1][36] Rihm wrote and dedicatedConcerto en Sol to cellistSol Gabetta in 2020. It was reviewed as a radiant musical portrait.[37] Among his last works were aStabat Mater and the song cycleTerzinen an den Tod.[4]
Rihm lived in Karlsruhe and Berlin.[38] He was married to Johanna Feldhausen-Rihm; they had a son, Sebastian. The marriage ended in divorce. He married Uta Frank in 1992; they had a daughter, Katja. They separated, and Uta Frank died in 2013. He married Verena Weber in 2017.[1]
His friend, the philosopherPeter Sloterdijk, said in an interview: "In a certain way he was an anti-ascetic character", taking pleasure in living. About cooking for friends, Sloterdijk said: "There was always a certain level of form and a certain inventive height. He never just cooked a simple recipe. He was always improvising and inventing."[1]
Rihm was diagnosed with cancer in 2017. He said in an interview in 2020: "Of course, like every person, I'm physically approaching the end. But I'm not at the end of my creative energy."[1]
Rihm died in a hospice[1][39] inEttlingen on 27 July 2024, at the age of 72, after battling cancer for many years.[3][4][6]
Rihm composed more than 500 works[1] and was particularly known for his operas.[40] 460 of his works were published, and manuscripts are held by thePaul Sacher Foundation.[4] Despite this productivity, he said he never found composing easy; rather, he was dedicated to his work.[4]Tom Service described Rihm's music as comprising a "bewildering variety of styles and sounds" inThe Guardian.[41] Jeffrey Arlo Brown described it as a "forceful, shape-shifting"œuvre inThe New York Times.[1]
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, his name was associated with the movement calledNew Simplicity(Neue Einfachheit), a term popularized byAribert Reimann.[42] Writing in 1977, Rihm suggested instead New Multiplicity(Neue Vielfalt) or New Clarity(Neue Eindeutigkeit), since he felt his music was not well described as simple.[43] His music was sometimes also described asNeoromantic.[1]
In the 1980s, Rihm's music was newly described as representing "New Subjectivity" orNeo-expressionism, with its "free figuration, emotional pathos, ... and ... clear individualization", sometimes in relation to contemporaneous art schools likeJunge Wilde (also known asNeue Wilde) in Germany or theTransavantgarde (also known asArte Cifra orTransavantguardia) in Italy.[44] However, Rihm did not seek to belong to any school and said that such things "must not be looked for" in his music.[44] Nonetheless, Yves Knockaert considered that there were important philosophical and stylistic affinities, especially between Rihm's music and the work ofGeorg Baselitz.[44]
Rihm once said he sought "a new kind of coherence, no longer only restricted to process". He experimented with "loosening coherence" in his "Notebook Compositions": theMusik for drei Streicher (1977),Zwischenblick: "Selbsthenker!" for string quartet (1983–1984), and the String Quartets Nos. 5 and 6. In these, he wrote the music with little, if any,precomposition or revision. Yves Knockaert compared his manner of writing here to the expressionist, but not the dodecaphonic, Schönberg.[45]
Rihm wrote his own libretti, based on the writings of Sophocles, Hölderlin, Nietzsche, Artaud and Müller.[21] Rihm grouped particular themes in cycles, likeChiffre,Vers une symphonie-fleuve,Séraphin, andÜber die Linie.[21] He also experimented with writing musical fragments, likeAlexanderlieder,Lenz-Fragmente, andFetzen (Scraps).[46]
According toBachtrack, Rihm was in 2022 in the Top 10 of the most performed living contemporary composers in the world.[47] He was acclaimed for his independence and continuous self-invention, which Brown said "reinvigorated" contemporary classical music.[1]
In 2013, theWolfgang-Rihm-Forum was opened at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, a multi-functional auditorium with 400 seats.[48]
Rihm's students includedRebecca Saunders,[1]David Philip Hefti,Márton Illés, andJörg Widmann.[14] Saunders said about his teaching that "he fought steadily and consequently against polemic thinking, and he encouraged a decidedly personal aesthetic unique to each of his many students."[1] Widmann characterized Rihm as "sometimes manic-obsessive and always extreme".[57]
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