Wolfgang Rihm: Music for Violin & Orchestra, Vol. 2

Wolfgang Rihm, one of the foremost contemporary composers, has created a powerful body of music for the violin. Gesungene Zeit is one of his most performed works, and it demonstrates why Rihm is so admired: music that begins and ends in ethereal lines while embracing agitation and threnody alike. The beautifully transparent and sensuous Lichtes Spiel is ‘light, but not lightweight’ in the composer’s words, and COLL’ARCO takes the soloist to the extremes of virtuosity in his largest concertante work for the violin, teeming with reminiscences, intricacy, and drama. Volume 1 can also be heard on Naxos.