January 14, 2019

  • Exploring the Violin Music of Wolfgang Rihm

     

    Rihm: Music for Violin & Orchestra, Volume 1
    Tianwa Yang, violin. Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz/Christoph-Mathias Mueller
    Naxos 8.573812
    Total Time:  52:05
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Tianwa Yang is exploring the music of composer Wolfgang Rihm (b. 1952) and begins here with three works taken from three different periods of his life.  The first volume of works for violin and orchestra provide a chance to hear Rihm’s compositional process evolve.  His music is still slowly trickling out with these being the second recordings of these pieces, the 2014 work being apparently a premiere recording.

    Dritte Musik (1993) opens the album.  It was the third concertante work for violin and is a reworking of an early piece for chamber orchestra.  The music is fairly episodic as it explores a variety of rhythmic motifs and musical lines.  The piece has a variety of percussion elements that add a somewhat jazz-like feel at times. Also unique is the addition of an accordion which is among the sounds explored in the piece as well.  The violin tends to flit across these soundscapes with jabbing energy that on occasion is almost viciously attacked by orchestral bursts.  This striving against the world is very much a part of this intense piece.  The music moves from nothingness to these large blocks of sound and then back again.  Dramatic bursts while the violin explores the extreme registers of the instrument add to this sort of visceral edge to the music.

    At the center of the album is Rihm’s first violin concerto, Lichtzwang (1975-76).  It was premiered, and subsequently recorded, by Janos Negyesy with the South West German Radio Orchestra conducted by Ernest Bour.  A variety of cymbal and tam-tam bursts announce the work’s beginning.  Sliding ideas begin to appear creating slightly dissonant harmonies before the soloist slowly emerges into a host of denser orchestral chords.  Though piled dissonances and seemingly random interjections occur, there is a gradual sense of tonality as the piece progresses.  The piece incorporates a chorale-like moment, with organ pitted against the opening percussion, as well.  Most fascinating is the way the soloist insists on being in its upper register while the orchestra tries to grab it and pull it down.  It is interesting to see how this antagonistic style of musical argument appears already in this early work.  There is no denying though that it is a powerful piece with some of the lyrical moments recalling Berg’s own concerto, though we are in fare more dissonant realms here.

    The final work on the disc is the most recent.  Gedicht des Malers (2014) was composed for Renaud Capucon.  The title is a fantasy built on a portrait of Max Reger by the German artist Max Beckman, but here Rihm imagines the portrait is of the great violinist Eugene Ysaye.  Rihm’s conception is of the orchestra being the canvas and the soloist the brush that interacts with its own exploration of motifs and colors.  Romantic gestures hint at the edges of the piece along with Berg, a common connection in Rihm’s work.

    Rihm’s music is by no means an easy listen.  It demands intent focus on one level, but succeeds because it has a great dramatic sense and in the midst of this one can forgo the often stark, close clusters of sounds and almost random solo lines.  The music in each case here is all of this type with subtle orchestral shifts and assertive writing across all three pieces.  As difficult as these may be to pull off, Tianwa Yang proves to be perfectly adept at finding the lyrical qualities of this music while also avoiding pathos.  She creates strong emotional, and deeply-felt segments that are heard in some of the more tonal moments best.  Her intonation is striking given how high she is required to play and it all seems so effortless.  That said, in the more intense moments, her attacks and articulation are equally invigorating.  One might only wish for a few more access tracks to be able to explore sections of these pieces in more detail.  Timing is a little short for this volume but do not let that detract from what may be some of the finest performances of these works to come for a very long while.