Symphonie No. 1 Symphonie No.

The music of Wolfgang Rihm is little-known in the United States: I've never seen it programmed. It's been edged out by the easy-listening pablum is now passed off as new music. That's a pity. Like the under-appreciated American composer Charles Wuorinen, Rihm has amassed a large body of estimable work. Thank goodness for the SWR Music record label. They've released a large number of good recordings--many live--of Rihm and other good European composers.

This collection covers a quarter-century of Rihm's work. Each piece stands perfectly well on its own feet, but taken together there's a real feeling of growth. The brief first symphony was written at the age of seventeen. Nearly all young composers reflect their models. In most cases, that might be Ravel or early Stravinsky. For Rihm, it's Schoenberg and Webern. A sense of drama is evident even at this early stage of his oeuvre. For many composers, a piece like this would cap a career. For Rihm, it's just a start. The second symphony, from just a few years later, shows a more controlled drama. There is a powerful and violent first-movement climax that arrives as a logical outcome of musical proceedings. The sound of the second Viennese school is still evident, but there is also an awareness of the lyrical and adventurous Polish school. From much later comes 'Vers une symphonie fleuve III'. This is presented as a movement of a larger meta-symphony, but also stands on its own perfectly well. Beginning with quiet and long drawn-out sonorities, it grows to a conclusion of multiple time-streams, with even a little Ives DNA.

There are also two pieces for choir, soloists and instruments. 'Nachtwach', for choir and trombones, is a procession of chords and sonorities and is quite pleasing. 'Raumage' is a more theatrical piece, based on 'Prometheus Unbound'. Women provide a constant pedal-tone of C, while men shout and declaim. It's a little frightening. It's supposed to be.

Rihm's work is varied and covers a lot of ground. It would be a mistake, however, to describe him as protean or eclectic. Instead, it is best to understand him as a prolific composer with an enormous vocabulary. There is a certain darkness of tone that permeates much of his work (he IS a German), but there's also great drama and passion. This is a composer worth getting to know.

While recording German composer Wolfgang Rihm's entire body of works, some 400+ pieces, is unachievable, Hanssler-Klassik has undertaken to release all the recordings it has access to from German radio orchestras. This here is the third disc in the label's "Rihm Edition" project, and in my opinion it's the best one yet.

The bulk of the disc are symphonic pieces performanced by the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR. Rihm wrote his Symphony No. 1 in 1969, at the age of only 17. It is a two-movement work in the twelve-tone idiom, yet dedicated to the memory of Karl Amadeus Hartmann. The opening "Appasionato" reflects the inspiration of Webern, but the heavy use of percussion gives it an instability missing from the crystalline works of that composer. The following "Adagio" is generally more subdued and focused on tone colour, but it rises to a thunderous climax. This is an impressive symphonic debut, and it suggests that even if Rihm had stayed with serialism, he would have still made a great name for himself.

By the time he wrote the "Symphony No. 2" for large orchestra (1975), Rihm had developed a mature and highly individual style of hyper-expressionist music whose tortured lines recall Schoenberg and Mahler, but even more schizoid. This symphony too is cast in two movements. The opening, where a single chord is brought to a crescendo before total silence descends on the orchestra for many seconds, is one of the most memorable in the repertoire. The remainder of the first movement, and the whole of the second "Marcia funebre" consist of thick layers and vaguely tonal harmonies. This work ought to appeal to fans of composers like Vasks (who seems neo-Romantic fluff in comparison) and Pettersson.

Rihm wrote a Third Symphony as well, but the Rihm Edition skips over that and some other symphonic pieces and brings us "Vers une symphonie fleuve III" (), the third in a series of works that meant to be only one extract from a massive single piece. This is generally a very different sort of orchestral writing, slow and bleak, sounding something like the late Schnittke. However, an ostinato is established and the piece gradually rises to a furious mechanistic climax.

The remaining two pieces are choral works, performed by the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart. "Nachtwach" for 8 solo voices, mixed choir, 4 trombones and woodblock (1987-88) is a calm study of sonorities. The wordless choir are left to blend with the trombones or are put in violent opposition. Only in the last bars does the woodblock enter, counting out an uncertain pulse. "Raumauge" for mixed choir and 5 percussionists (1986/1993/1987) is rather different, setting a portion of Aeschylus' "Prometheus Bound" by having the male parts growl and snarl the text while the female singers stay in the background with their pure vocalizations. The interplay of voice and percussion reminds me of the first act of Rihm's opera THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO.

If you want to enter the world of Wolfgang Rihm, this disc might make a fine introduction, as it features pieces from a wide span of his career which display his stylistic growth and his perennial strengths as a composer. While I certainly can't promise that Rihm's entire oeuvre will appeal to everyone, I do think that no matter where your tastes lie in 20th century music, from the Darmstadt avant-garde to those who maintained an interest in tonality, the five pieces here should prove very entertaining.

This Volume Three in Hanssler's Rihm Edition is another excellent entry. While Volume One is a set of concertos and Volume Two brings together three early Rihm orchestral works from the mid-1970s, this set is more innovative in its programming, with three orchestral and two choral works. Bravo to the Hanssler team! The material for the Edition is the SWR archives, the Southwest German Radio orchestras of Baden-Baden und Freiburg and Stuttgart. The current set consists entirely of recordings of the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR.

The disc leads with two early works, the "Symphonie op. 3 fur orchester" (10'16 -- 1969) and "Symphonie fur large orchester" (14'17 -- 1975). The 1969 "symphony" is anguished Second Vienna School expressionism, using twelve-tone series and dedicated to Karl Amadeus Hartmann. Rihm wrote it at age 17. With the 1975 "symphony" Rihm makes a characteristic move, combining the language of Schoenberg and Berg with powerful Romantic flourishes. These two works sound perfect together, almost as if they constitute one four-movement symphony.

What follows is something very different yet totally appropriate -- the choral "Nachtwach" (10'10 -- 1987/88) for eight soloists, mixed choir, four trombones and woodblock. In live performance the choir stands behind the audience with the soloists and trombones in front. Though the instrumentation sounds decidedly odd, this is a quite effective piece with wordless vocals, and is the perfect length.

The "Vers une symphonie fleuve III fur orchester" (22'57 -- 1992/1995) is the longest work of the set. Written for the 50th anniversary of the Stuttgart orchestra, it combines the sparser, quieter work typical of Rihm's 1990s compositions with a Romantic flourish that connects with his 1970s works, including the 1975 "Symphonie." The piece begins very mysteriously, and flows along to a tremendous tonal climax. (This recording can also be found on the excellent Musik in Deutschland 1950-2000, Box Two collection of orchestral music from RCA.)

And the disc ends with another short choral piece, "Raumage" (5'01 -- 1994), a Xenakis-like work with lyrics from Aeschylus's "Prometheus Bound" that epitomize a pivotal statement made by Rihm in 1979 in Karlsruhe: "[e]verything trembles from violence suppressed or suffered."

This superbly edited selection is a perfect example of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. Thanks to Hanssler and the SWR for the ongoing Rihm Edition!