Wolfgang Rihm at 60

Wolfgang Rihm is one of the most prolific composers working today, writing a huge range of music and often revisiting and revising earlier pieces and ideas. Nach-Schrift of 2004 is connected to his earlier ‘chiffre’ cycle from the 1980’s when he was exploring his compositional style, and Will Sound More Again is a recently extended and reworked version of a piece from 2006, full of energy and immediate appeal. Rihm’s music in this concert is set against that of two of his most celebrated pupils – Rebecca Saunders’ haunting Quartet and Jörg Widmann’s Dubairiche Tänze, a set of dances with echoes of the composer’s native Bavaria, coloured by his inventive compositional voice.