Wolfgang Rihm

Wolfgang Rihm (b. March 13, 1952) is a German composer from Karlsruhe. He finished both his school and his studies in music theory and composition in 1972, two years before the premiere of his early work Morphonie at the 1974 Donaueschinge

Wolfgang Rihm (b. March 13, 1952) is a German composer from Karlsruhe. He finished both his school and his studies in music theory and composition in 1972, two years before the premiere of his early work Morphonie at the 1974 Donaueschingen Festival launched his career as a prominent figure in the European new music scene. Rihm's early work, combining contemporary techniques with the emotional volatility of Mahler and of Schoenberg's early expressionist period was regarded by many as a revolt against the avant-garde generation of Boulez, Stockhausen and others, and led to a large number of commissions in the coming years. His work still continues to plough expressionist furrows, though the influence of Luigi Nono, Helmut Lachenmann and Morton Feldman, amongst others, has affected his style significantly.

Rihm is an extremely prolific composer, with hundreds of completed scores, a large portion of which are yet to be commercially recorded. He does not always regard a finished work as a last word on a subject—for example the orchestral work Ins Offene...(1990) was completely rewritten in 1992, and then used as the basis for his piano concerto "sphere" (1994), before the piano part of "sphere" was recast for the solo piano work Nachstudie (also 1994). (In 2002, Rihm also produced a new version of Nachstudie, Sphäre nach Studie, for harp, two double basses, piano and percussion, and also a new version of "sphere", Sphäre um Sphäre, for two pianos and chamber ensemble.) Other important works include twelve string quartets, the operas Die Hamletmaschine (1983-1986, text by Heiner Muller) and Die Eroberung von Mexico (1987-1991, based on texts by Antonin Artaud), over twenty song-cycles, the oratorio Deus Passus (1996), the chamber orchestra piece Jagden und Formen (1995-2001) and a series of related orchestral works bearing the title Vers une symphonie fleuve. The New York Philharmonic Orchestra recently premiered Rihm's 2004 commission Two Other Movements.