Death of Germany’s foremost opera composer
RIPThe Berlin composer Aribert Reimann died yesterday at the age of 88.
He achieved renown with a 1978 opera on Shakespeare’s King Lear, written at the suggestion of the singer Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Further works included The Castle (after Kafka, 1992) and Medea (after Grillparzer, 2010).
His violin concerto has also been extensively performed, and he wrote some fine Lied cycles.
Reimann’s father was director of the Berlin State and Cathedral Choir, his mother was an oratorio singer.
Reimann studied composition with Boris Blacher and Ernst Pepping and wrote an early ballet in 1959 to a libretto by Günter Grass.
Here’s an interview with Bruce Duffie.
Reimann was also a fine pianist, recording lieder with Fischer-Dieskau, Brigitte Fassbaender and Elisabeth Grummer.
Rest in Peace. I really was not expecting to read this today. His “Lear” was one of the first modernist operas I listened to when I was a teenager, and it blew me away. His “Medea” also left me very impressed when I watched the DVD with Marlis Petersen in the title role. A total loss for music.
German angst and expressionism, à la Alban Berg, Schönberg, et al. In this genre, Reimann was a brilliant expert.
The music in the video seems to me to correctly conveying the terror of a terrorist state and the resulting desintegration of the mind. And Lear had not even heard of Hitler.
It was always a pleasure to spot Mr. Reimann at a Deutsche Oper first night, not least the latest of the many ones of his own, the Maeterlinck tripthych, L’Invisible, only a few years ago. He certainly knew how to write for the voice. He’ll be much missed.
But please do enlighten us about the Reimann violin concerto, a work unknown to each and every reference work, let alone the composer’s publishers. Just who has – “extensively” – played it, when and where?
I saw the German premiere, in 1997, at Cologne Philharmonie..Gidon Kremer was the soloist, Daniel Barenboim led the Chicago Symphony.
Lear. One of the great operas. Full stop. RIP
https://basiaconfuoco.com/2018/09/12/aribert-reimann-linvisible/
Time flies like the wind….It seems like yesterday when i played at the premiere of Troades 37 ago…Fantastic composer, wonderful pianist,and a great teacher.And a wonderful spirit, cultivated,funny and always helpful and kind. And truly an Echt-Berliner!!!!
Wow! What a privilege! I always wanted to listen to Troades. But the EMI recording has been out of print for years and has never been transferred to CD. The price and shipping of the LPs to Colombia is outrageous.
In the 1970s/80s I tried to see every ENO production (those were the days!), including Reimann’s ‘Lear’ which, to my surprise, I ended up attending three or four times, such was the power of the music and the production – with Monte Jaffe in the title role, I recall. A great experience, vividly remembered. RIP.
I’m sure his family “appreciate” your comments. You really relish the deaths of others, don’t you.
P. Terry, I’m confused–who here was disrespectful?
John Borstlap, as ever ( see above).
That is nonsense, Reimann belongs to a certain period in Germany, and it is generaly known how that period was defined by the war. And everything can be clearly heard in the music. Within that genre, Reimann was one of the best, together with Bernd Alois Zimmermann (Die Soldaten, celebrated opera). These composers wanted to express what you can clearly hear in the music they wrote.
Often my impression is, also here on SD, that people who claim to be music lovers, simply don’t hear the music at all, and only the sound it makes.
Here’s another piece by Reimann, inspired by Schoenberg’s Erwartung – another monodrama:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEqavWL8Wcs
It shows how defining Schoenberg and Berg were in postwar Germany, giving voice to existential terror.