Biography
Wolfgang Rihm earned recognition as a German composer and teacher whose output combined conventional and contemporary idioms in ways that defied easy prediction. He produced more than five hundred works across every non-sacred genre, making him one of the most prolific figures of his era.
Born in Karlsruhe on 13 March 1952, Rihm began piano lessons in childhood and finished his earliest pieces before turning twelve. Between 1968 and 1972 he pursued composition and theory under Eugen Werner Velte at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe; after completing those studies he worked with Karlheinz Stockhausen until 1973, the year he joined the same institution’s faculty. He simultaneously continued training with Klaus Huber and Hans Eggebrecht. Around this period he wrote the operas Faust und Yorick and Jacob Lenz, both introduced in Hamburg in 1979. The double premiere brought immediate acclaim and prizes, establishing his reputation for fusing romantic-era tonality with modernist language. Rihm drew particular stimulus from French avant-garde author Antonin Artaud and aligned himself with the New Simplicity movement of the 1980s, a trend that reacted against the serial experiments of the preceding decades by restoring classical and romantic forms and harmonic practice. He received a full professorship at Karlsruhe in 1985 and had already begun leading classes at the Darmstadt Summer Courses in 1978.
Beyond his stage works Die Hamletmaschine and Oedipus, Rihm created numerous extended orchestral scores and instrumental cycles. During the 1990s he investigated “sound points,” concentrating extreme high and low registers into dense harmonic clusters while rejecting predictable development in favor of abrupt shifts in dynamics, texture, and atmosphere. He served as composer-in-residence at the 1997 Lucerne Festival, received an honorary doctorate from the Freie Universität Berlin in 1998, and held similar residencies at the Salzburg and Strasbourg festivals in 2000. The Ernst von Siemens Music Prize followed in 2003, and the New York Philharmonic premiered his commissioned Two Other Movements the next year.
Rihm sustained his intense creative activity through the 2010s, supplying pieces for Lucerne and fulfilling numerous commissions. His Reminiszenz – Triptychon und Spruch in memoriam Hans Henny Jahnn received its first performance in Hamburg in 2016; the cantata Gebet der Hexe von Endor followed in Berlin in 2021. An album documenting his organ improvisations from the 1970s, Wolfgang Rihm improvisiert an der Orgel, appeared in 2019. Further recordings issued in 2022 included Wolfgang Rihm: Grat (Edge) – Works for and with Violoncello, performed by Friedrich Gauwerky, and Musica Viva #40: Wolfgang Rihm – Jagden und Formen, recorded by Franck Ollu with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Rihm continued composing and teaching, maintaining ties with the Lucerne Festival, until his death in Ettlingen, Germany, on 27 July 2024.
Born in Karlsruhe on 13 March 1952, Rihm began piano lessons in childhood and finished his earliest pieces before turning twelve. Between 1968 and 1972 he pursued composition and theory under Eugen Werner Velte at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe; after completing those studies he worked with Karlheinz Stockhausen until 1973, the year he joined the same institution’s faculty. He simultaneously continued training with Klaus Huber and Hans Eggebrecht. Around this period he wrote the operas Faust und Yorick and Jacob Lenz, both introduced in Hamburg in 1979. The double premiere brought immediate acclaim and prizes, establishing his reputation for fusing romantic-era tonality with modernist language. Rihm drew particular stimulus from French avant-garde author Antonin Artaud and aligned himself with the New Simplicity movement of the 1980s, a trend that reacted against the serial experiments of the preceding decades by restoring classical and romantic forms and harmonic practice. He received a full professorship at Karlsruhe in 1985 and had already begun leading classes at the Darmstadt Summer Courses in 1978.
Beyond his stage works Die Hamletmaschine and Oedipus, Rihm created numerous extended orchestral scores and instrumental cycles. During the 1990s he investigated “sound points,” concentrating extreme high and low registers into dense harmonic clusters while rejecting predictable development in favor of abrupt shifts in dynamics, texture, and atmosphere. He served as composer-in-residence at the 1997 Lucerne Festival, received an honorary doctorate from the Freie Universität Berlin in 1998, and held similar residencies at the Salzburg and Strasbourg festivals in 2000. The Ernst von Siemens Music Prize followed in 2003, and the New York Philharmonic premiered his commissioned Two Other Movements the next year.
Rihm sustained his intense creative activity through the 2010s, supplying pieces for Lucerne and fulfilling numerous commissions. His Reminiszenz – Triptychon und Spruch in memoriam Hans Henny Jahnn received its first performance in Hamburg in 2016; the cantata Gebet der Hexe von Endor followed in Berlin in 2021. An album documenting his organ improvisations from the 1970s, Wolfgang Rihm improvisiert an der Orgel, appeared in 2019. Further recordings issued in 2022 included Wolfgang Rihm: Grat (Edge) – Works for and with Violoncello, performed by Friedrich Gauwerky, and Musica Viva #40: Wolfgang Rihm – Jagden und Formen, recorded by Franck Ollu with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Rihm continued composing and teaching, maintaining ties with the Lucerne Festival, until his death in Ettlingen, Germany, on 27 July 2024.
Singles
