Wolfgang Rihm – Rihm Edition vol. 4: Quid est Deus

Posted By : d'Avignon | Date : 02 Mar 2012 19:46:01 | Comments : 3 |

Wolfgang Rihm – Rihm Edition vol. 4: Quid est Deus (2009)

Label: Hänssler Classics | cat. no. Hänssler 93.236

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The first half of this Volume Four in Hanssler's Rihm Edition series is the new choral work "Quid est Deus fur Chor und Orchester" (2007), commissioned by the University of Freiburg for its 550th anniversary. Rihm uses as the libretto an ancient text attributed to Hermes Trismegistos which presents the answers of 24 philosophers to the question 'what is God?' The 24 theories take the form of short definitions.

Sylvain Cambreling leads the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart and the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg in the performance, recorded in November 2007. According to Rihm, "The vocal parts are devoid of all the typical features of contemporary choral practice, but are nonetheless very demanding -- especially in the areas of intonation and articulation." So the text is not fragmented, and is sung without any experimental vocal techniques.

The second half of the disc is two works written back-to-back, "Frau/Stimme fur Soprano und Orchester (1989) and "Ungemaltes Bild fur Orchestra (1990). Both works are from Rihm's "less-is-more" period when he incorporated techniques from late period Luigi Nono, Helmut Lachenmann, and Morton Feldman. "Ungemaltes Bild" is mainly quiet and discontinuous, periodically interrupted by percussive outbursts. "Frau/Stimme" is a similar soundworld, but adding the soprano voices of Isolde Siebert and Carmen Fugiss, singing lines from Heiner Muller's play "Der Auftrag":

"I am the angel of despair. With my hands i spread intoxication, numbing, forgetting, the desire and torment of bodies. My speech is silence, my song is the scream. In the shadow of my wings lives terror. My hope is the first battle. I am the knife with the dead break open their coffins. I am the one who will be. My flight is revolt, my heaven the abyss of tomorrow."

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Tracks:

01. Quid Est Deus für Chor und Orchester (2007) [0:33:20.63]
02. Ungemahltes Bild für Orchester (1994) [0:16:10.00]
03. Frau/Stimme für Sopran und Orchester (1989) [0:19:57.57]

Performers

SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart
SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg
Isolde Siebert – soprano
Carmen Fugis – soprano
Sylvain Crambeling - conductor (tr. 01)
Friedrich Goldmann - conductor (tr. 02)
Michael Gielen - conductor (tr. 03)