Wolfgang RIHM
Pursued Form; Hidden Forms;Chiffre 1;Silence to be
beaten
Klangforum Wien/Sylvain
Cambreling/ Marino Formenti
(piano)
Kairos 0012072KAI [47.47]
Amazon
US
Four fairly short works from 1982-97 are collected here. Silence to be
beaten has been played in England. It is preoccupied with momentum, starting
with extremes of tempo, leading to a regular pulse which steadily accelerates.
A prominent piano is challenged by melodic fragments with contradictory rhythms
and syncopations, and disruptive percussion. Towards the end there are long,
precisely measured rests - 'silences to be beaten'. Chiffre (a cipher)
for piano & seven instruments is a short, abrasive piece a 'generative
pole that continues to generate more music'. The two more recent 'Form' pieces
use most of the Vienna Klangforum's 24 members.
The music on this release is mostly rather obscure and (to my ears) not
listener-friendly; the notes by Rihm himself are even more obscure - totally
impenetrable and unhelpful.
Wolfgang Rihm (born 1952) is unquestionably one of the most prominent and
important of contemporary German composers and has been recorded extensively.
To approach him first in a more sympathetic light, I can warmly recommend
Anne-Sophie Mutter's recording of his violin
concerto Time
Chant
[Deutsche Grammophon
463
790-2].
Peter Grahame Woolf
