After a first approximation to the music of Wolfgang Rihm (Karlsruhe, 1952) with ‘La musique creuse le ciel’, in the care of piano duo GrauSchumacher, the Fundación BBVA-NEOS Collection revisits the German composer, a disciple of Stockhausen and Klaus Huber, with a selection of his recent work.

In the accomplished oeuvre he has built up since he began composing at the age of eleven, spanning numerous terrains and formats from opera and large-scale symphonic works to more intimate pieces for piano and voice, Rihm has shown a special devotion for choral music, with scores like ‘Crucifixus’ (1968), on texts from the Latin communion, or ‘Deus Passus’ (1996), drawing on fragments of the Gospel of St. Luke. Ten years later, in 2006 – year of ‘Verwandlung II’, the orchestral score that won him the international category of the British Composer Awards, and his return to biblical texts with ‘Sieben Passions-Texte’ – Rihm composed this ‘Vigilia ‘for Six Voices and Ensemble. Based on the Good Friday liturgy, this recreation of the death of Jesus Christ is also choral in its conception. In it, Rihm revisits the New Simplicity of his first compositions but adding new elements taken from Italian renaissance polyphony, creating the kind of theatrical piece he does so well.

Performances by:
ChorkWerk Ruhr
Ensemble Modern

Conductor:
Rupert Huber

Contents:

CD Audio:

1. Sonata I (05:05)
2. Motetus I (02:29)
3. Sonata II (01:03)
4. Motetus II (03:45)
5. Sonata III (02:13)
6. Motetus III (03:22)
7. Sonata IV (02:21)
8. Motetus IV (04:44)
9. Sonata V (02:35)
10. Motetus V (4:02)
11. Sonata VI (2:43)
12. Motetus VI (2:29)
13. Sonata VII (03:47)
14. Motetus VII (05:08)
15. Miserere (16:06)

Total time: 61:53