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Death of a bifocal Swiss composer, 84

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norman lebrecht

July 10, 2019

The composer and journalist Rolf Urs Ringger died in Zurich on June 26.

He supplemented a considerable compositional output with work as a reviewer and journalist for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and others.

Comments

Jean says:

July 10, 2019 at 8:55 am

A pleasant piece – wouldn’t mind hearing some more from him

NIx says:

July 10, 2019 at 12:50 pm

He was not above writing critiques of concerts that he did not attend. He was once very critical of a performance of mine, describing my performance of Don Juan as sounding like (a better) youth orchestra. But Don Juan was not on the programme that night. And he was not in attendance. I did, several years later, get my revenge, though.

John Borstlap says:

July 11, 2019 at 4:10 pm

Such things happen more often. Sometimes it seems that the presence of a critic does not make any difference as to the quality of the review. I know of a music critic who, because of entering the auditorium quite late, had missed the announcement that the OOMP was to be replaced. So, in the review next day the helpless chap bitterly complained about the fake style imitation he was exposed to, forcibly criticizing the bad writing and nonsensical rhetoric of Beethoven’s Leonore III ouverture.

(OOMP: the Obligatory Opening Modern Piece.)

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