Wolfgang Rihm: Music For Three Strings

1. Music for 3 Strings First Part, No 1: Lento
Composed by Wolfgang Rihm
with Ensemble 13 , Wolfgang Hock , Joachim Lemme , Martin Ostertag

2. Music for 3 Strings First Part, No 2: Assai sostenuto
Composed by Wolfgang Rihm
with Ensemble 13 , Wolfgang Hock , Joachim Lemme , Martin Ostertag

3. Music for 3 Strings First Part, No 3: Double (Molto allegro)
Composed by Wolfgang Rihm
with Ensemble 13 , Wolfgang Hock , Joachim Lemme , Martin Ostertag

4. Music for 3 Strings Second Part, No 4: Canzona I
Composed by Wolfgang Rihm
with Ensemble 13 , Wolfgang Hock , Joachim Lemme , Martin Ostertag

5. Music for 3 Strings Second Part, No 5: Canzona II
Composed by Wolfgang Rihm
with Ensemble 13 , Wolfgang Hock , Joachim Lemme , Martin Ostertag

6. Music for 3 Strings Second Part: Intermezzo
Composed by Wolfgang Rihm
with Ensemble 13 , Wolfgang Hock , Joachim Lemme , Martin Ostertag

7. Music for 3 Strings Second Part, No 6: Canzona III
Composed by Wolfgang Rihm
with Ensemble 13 , Wolfgang Hock , Joachim Lemme , Martin Ostertag

8. Music for 3 Strings Third Part, No 7: Energico-Lento-Con brio
Composed by Wolfgang Rihm
with Ensemble 13 , Wolfgang Hock , Joachim Lemme , Martin Ostertag

Customer Reviews:

Trio Recherche.......2000-09-12

I enjoy listening to this CD. It contains works composed by Wolfgang Rihm (b1952) for a String Trio. They are a pleasant spin. If you are familiar with Beethoven, Brahms and/or Bartock pieces for string ensembles, these pieces will be accessible to you. The outstanding feature of this CD is the band. Trio Recherche is in complete control of the mechanical and emotive aspects of these pieces. The vigour they apply to ENERGICO brings it to life. The dynamics of CANZONAs 1 & 2 are skillfully executed. If you are interested in a performance by one of the best string trios this world has to offer, this CD will be interesting to you.

Original, but not altogether moving.......2000-08-03

Wolfgang Rihm is one of those composers who's name I saw all over the place (most notably, Anne-Sophie Mutter CDs) but had never actually heard any of his music. I somehow had gotten the impression that he was some sort of "new tonalist" composer, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

While Rihm's music is more clearly in debt to romantic music than most 20th century composers, he's still careful enough to keep his music progressive, rather than regressive. "Music for 3 Strings" does utilize all sorts of things from older music (triads, quotes from Beethoven quartets) but they're used in totally new ways so that you almost don't even notice he's using something old.

However, the trait of Rihm's music that is most often discussed, and probably most appealing to a lot of people, is his very immediate and emotional style of writing. Rihm lays everything on the table, my only problem with it is that his idea of passion and emotion is, unlike his other compositional techniques, clearly a romantic one.