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5 unusual facts about Wolfgang Rihm


Gérard Buquet

In October 2007 he conducted « les Etudes d’après Séraphin » by W. Rihm, for the tenth anniversary of the ZKM, with the Ensemble für Neue Musik of the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe, and the Ballet of the Staatstheater of Karlsruhe.

Jane Seitz

Wolfgang Rihm orchestrated 1988/89 a text written by Seitz’ former partner Wolf Wondratschek Mein Tod. Requiem in memoriam Jane S. for soprano and orchestra.

Jeffrey Milarsky

In the United States and abroad, he has premiered and recorded works of many contemporary composers, including Charles Wuorinen, Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, Lasse Thoresen, Gerard Grisey, Jonathan Dawe, Tristan Murail, Ralph Shapey, Luigi Nono, Mario Davidovsky, and Wolfgang Rihm.

Jörg Widmann

A year later he became a composition student of Kay Westermann (born 1958), subsequently also studying with Hans Werner Henze, Wilfried Hiller, Heiner Goebbels and Wolfgang Rihm.

Several clarinet concerti have been dedicated to Widmann and premiered by him: in 1999 through "musica viva", he played Music for Clarinets and Orchestra by Wolfgang Rihm, and in 2006 with the WDR Symphony Orchestra, Cantus by Aribert Reimann.


Bart Schneemann

Many composers have written music especially for him, including Tristan Keuris, Wolfgang Rihm, John Zorn, Gia Kantsjeli, Kevin Volans, George Crumb, György Kurtág and Jacob ter Veldhuis.

Ensemble recherche

The ensemble premiered some 500 works, including compositions by Hèctor Parra, Brice Pauset, Gérard Pesson and Wolfgang Rihm.

Ernest Bour

World premières he presided over included works by Bussotti, Ferneyhough, Górecki, Ligeti, Rihm, Stockhausen and Xenakis, and he gave the French premières of Hindemith's Symphony Mathis der Maler and Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress and the European premiere of Susman's Trailing Vortices.

Gruppe Neue Musik Hanns Eisler

More than 250 first performances by more than 70 composers include Edison Denisov's Trio, Nicolaus A. Huber's Demijour, Luca Lombardi's Einklang, Wolfgang Rihm's Kalt, Friedrich Goldmann's Konzert für Posaune und 3 Instrumentalgruppen, Luigi Nono's Kolomb.

Hamburg State Opera

More recently, Hamburg gave the world premières of Wolfgang Rihm's The Conquest of Mexico (1992) and Helmut Lachenmann's The Little Match Girl (1997), for which it received much international acclaim.

Juan Carlos Tolosa

At the same time, between 1990 and 1998, he regularly attended the Ars musica contemporary music festival composition seminars and workshops, with the participation of Luciano Berio, Witold Lutosławski, György Ligeti, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Brian Ferneyhough, Pascal Dusapin, Iannis Xenakis, Magnus Lindberg, Luca Francesconi and Wolfgang Rihm.

Matthias Bamert

He has conducted the world premieres of works by composers such as Toru Takemitsu, John Casken, James MacMillan and Wolfgang Rihm.

Premio Paolo Borciani

Special Prize: Ex-aequo Kuss Quartet and Pacifica Quartet (best performance of the Quartet commissioned to Wolfgang Rihm)

See Siang Wong

He has often performed piano works of contemporary composers like Arnold Schönberg, Luciano Berio, György Ligeti, György Kurtág, Wolfgang Rihm, Peter Eötvös, Emmanuel Nunes, Marco Stroppa, James Dillon, Jonathan Harvey, Rudolf Kelterborn.

Stephen Beville

In 2001, Beville won a DAAD scholarship to study with Wolfgang Rihm at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe in Germany, where he obtained the Konzertexamen both in Composition and Performance - First Class.

Tabea Zimmermann

Other contemporary composers who have written works for her include Heinz Holliger, Wolfgang Rihm, Georges Lentz, Bruno Mantovani, Sally Beamish and Josef Tal.


see also