Wolfgang Rihm
Change, not dogma: Wolfgang Rihm is one of the world’s leading contemporary composers. His music is accessible, sometimes even positively pleasant – and he now celebrates his 70th birthday in the Elbphilharmonie
Wolfgang Rihm is one of the world’s most important contemporary composers: with his 400+ works, the polymath from Karlsruhe has created a universe that is almost impossible to pigeonhole. From a very young age he was less interested in strict aesthetic dogmas than in transition, change and music in a constant state of flow. Over the decades, Rihm has unleashed many such moments through a permanent current of creativity. As a result, his music is not only accessible, but also – outrageously for some avantgarde hardliners – sometimes even positively pleasant. The composer’s 70th birthday is now taken as an opportunity to highlight his multifaceted work.
What quickly becomes apparent is the virtuosity with which Rihm succeeds in bringing very different line-ups to life. »Wolfgang Rihm is one of those composers who write for the voice in a very classical way«, says the baritone Georg Nigl, to whom Rihm dedicated the song cycle »Vermischter Traum«. His concerto »Séraphin« is conceived for 16 players, an expression of his fascination with the playwright and poet Antonin Artaud, enfant terrible of the French avantgarde. Ensemble Modern, one of the world’s leading New Music formations, now performs this work. The series »Verwandlung« dives headlong into a large orchestra’s profusion of tone colours, facilitated in this case by the long-awaited return of Franz Welser-Möst and his Cleveland Orchestra.
