Wolfgang Rihm: Deus Passus

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Wolfgang Rihm, one of Germany's leading composers, here plants himself in Bach's footsteps with a version of the St. Luke Passion. Rihm emphasizes spirituality in this calm unfolding of the drama. Five vocal soloists take the parts traditionally assigned to the Evangelist and Jesus; their lines are often broken into phrases taken by each singer. While alluding to his eminent predecessor, Rihm's music is thoroughly contemporary, though nowhere approaching iconoclastic avant-garde. He intersperses the Gospel text with liturgical hymns, a passage from Isaiah and a Stabat Mater, and closes the work with a setting of Paul Celan's poem Tenebrae.

Overall, the work impresses with its seriousness, its refusal to sensationalize or strive for effect, and its largely successful effort to adapt a traditional form to our times. This recording was made at the concert premiere, and Helmut Rilling, who commissioned the work, leads an intense performance that sustains interest throughout its hour and a half. Orchestra and chorus are fine, the soloists outstanding. -- Dan Davis

BBC Music Magazine, October 1, 2001
“…the directness of Rihm's expression in this work…come ultimately from Bach himself” FIVE STARS

Album Description
Last fall, a series of modern masterworks were premiered as the capstone of the yearlong commemoration of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach. Four settings of the Good Friday narrative were commission by four of the world’s leading composers: Sofia Gubaidulina, Tan Dun, Osvaldo Golijov and Wolfgang Rihm.

First to be released by the international award winning Hänssler Classic label is Wolfgang Rihm’s transcendent requiem of Reconciliation, DEUS PASSUS.

For those familiar with Rihm’s earlier work, DEUS PASSUS constitutes a new direction in his stylistic development. Absent are the violent juxtapositions and bold gestures of Rihm’s earlier work. In their place, a delicate, carefully chosen almost “impressionistic” palette has been selected. This “impressionistic” approach applies equally to the texts that Rihm selected to set. Consciously selecting St. Luke’s account of Jesus’ death, specifically for it’s lack of anti-Semitic content, Rihm deleted all non dialogue material and supplemented his “Passion fragment” with selections from the Catholic lectionary, the Stabat Mater and poetic interpolations, concluding with a moving setting of Paul Celan’s “inverted prayer”, TENEBRAE.

Grammy Award winning conductor, Helmuth Rilling delivers one of the finest performances of his career, directing the Gachinger Kantorei, the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart and stellar soloists Juliane Banse, Iris Vermillion, Cornelia Kallisch, Christoph Prégardien and Andreas Schmidt in a score that rightfully takes it’s place with the 20th century’s “other” great St. Luke Passion, the Penderecki “Passio et more domini nostri Jesu Christi secundum Lucam”.

Wolfgang Rihm: Deus Passus

Tracks:

Das Ist Mein Leib
Potum Meum
Movt Instrumental
Und Er Ging Hinaus
Domine, Audivi Auditum Tuum
Siehe, Da Kam Die Schar
Eripe Me, Domine
Sie Griffen Ihn Aber
Die Manner Aber, Die Jesum Hielten/Weissage, Wer Ist's
Qui Cogitaverunt Malitias In Corde
Und Als Es Tag Ward
Und Sie Fuhrten Ihn Vor Pilatus
Da Aber Herodes Jesum Sah
Pilatus Aber Sprach
Popule Meus
Und Als Sie Ihn Hinfuhrten/Ihr Tochter Von Jerusalem/Es Wurden Aber Auch Hingefuhrt
Und Als Sie Kamen An Die Statte
Crux Fidelis
Er Hat Anderen Geholfen
Hic Acetum, Fel, Arundo
Es War Aber Auch Uber Ihm Geschrieben/Und Es Ward Eine Finsternis
Und Jesus Rief Laut/Vater, Ich Befehle Meinen Geist/Und...Verschied
Flecte Ramos, Arbor Alta
Stabat Mater Dolorosa
Und Alles Volk, Das Dabei War/Furwahr, Er Trug Unsre Krankheit
Joseph Von Arimathia Ging Zu Pilatus/Aber Am Ersten Tage Der Woche
Tenebrae

Amazon.com

Wolfgang Rihm, one of Germany's leading composers, here plants himself in Bach's footsteps with a version of the St. Luke Passion. Rihm emphasizes spirituality in this calm unfolding of the drama. Five vocal soloists take the parts traditionally assigned to the Evangelist and Jesus; their lines are often broken into phrases taken by each singer. While alluding to his eminent predecessor, Rihm's music is thoroughly contemporary, though nowhere approaching iconoclastic avant-garde. He intersperses the Gospel text with liturgical hymns, a passage from Isaiah and a Stabat Mater, and closes the work with a setting of Paul Celan's poem Tenebrae.

Album Description

Last fall, a series of modern masterworks were premiered as the capstone of the yearlong commemoration of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach. Four settings of the Good Friday narrative were commission by four of the world's leading composers: Sofia Gubaidulina, Tan Dun, Osvaldo Golijov and Wolfgang Rihm.

First to be released by the international award winning Hänssler Classic label is Wolfgang Rihm's transcendent requiem of Reconciliation, DEUS PASSUS.

For those familiar with Rihm's earlier work, DEUS PASSUS constitutes a new direction in his stylistic development. Absent are the violent juxtapositions and bold gestures of Rihm's earlier work. In their place, a delicate, carefully chosen almost “impressionistic” palette has been selected. This “impressionistic” approach applies equally to the texts that Rihm selected to set. Consciously selecting St. Luke's account of Jesus' death, specifically for it's lack of anti-Semitic content, Rihm deleted all non dialogue material and supplemented his “Passion fragment” with selections from the Catholic lectionary, the Stabat Mater and poetic interpolations, concluding with a moving setting of Paul Celan's “inverted prayer”, TENEBRAE.

Grammy Award winning conductor, Helmuth Rilling delivers one of the finest performances of his career, directing the Gachinger Kantorei, the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart and stellar soloists Juliane Banse, Iris Vermillion, Cornelia Kallisch, Christoph Prégardien and Andreas Schmidt in a score that rightfully takes it's place with the 20th century's “other” great St. Luke Passion, the Penderecki “Passio et more domini nostri Jesu Christi secundum Lucam”.

Customer Reviews:

Great composer, interesting music.......2006-05-22

Originally commissioned by the Passio 2000 project, this is one of the four examples of modern music dealing with the final days of Christ. Great text (assembled from many sources) innovative yet accessible music and great sense of lithurgy make these CD's an essential component of contemporary music selections. However, the other reviewer is correct, the piece is monolythic, and there are little dynamic changes. I suspect this was intentional, though.

In Need of Contrast.......2003-04-18

Of all the pieces commissioned by Helmut Rilling for the Passion 2000 project, Wolfgang Rihm's is by far the most traditional. Written by a compatriot of Bach, with Passion texts alternating with "meditations" from the Catholic mass and a poem by Paul Celan, this work is Germanic to the core. And while it is a fine work, it has a certain stodginess that is hard to ignore.

Rihm is probably the leading German composer of his generation and one often touted as a European "neo-romantic". This description should not conjure up the likes of the ever tuneful John Corigliano in your mind. Rather, this means that Rihm is a 12 tone composer who has escewed the trappings of total serialism to create music not all that far from Luigi Nono, Alois Zimmerman or even Berg. The composer culled his text from fragments of the St. Luke passion story. By cutting the narration down to the bare bones, the work has a directness that is missing from more verbose passion settings. Words are split between five soloists and the chorus, negating any simple dramatic reading of the text. Instead, it becomes an extended dark meditation on the Luke passion story.

But this lack of drama is also one of the biggest faults in the score. The piece is monolithic. Though occasionally Rihm uses an interesting instrumental effect (courtesy of his time studying with Helmut Lachenman) most of the sections of the work blend into the other sections, almost seamlessly. And though there are changes of tempo, these are mostly quite subtle, and do nothing to relieve the unrelenting Lento feeling of the work. Add to that a very large orchestra that, paradoxically, seems mostly muddy and dark (so dark it makes Brahms sound positively sensuous!) and the work begins to loose steam rather quickly.