# Aribert Reimann



## Morimur

http://www.schott-music.com/shop/persons/featured/aribert-reimann/



> *Aribert Reimann* (born 4 March 1936) is a German composer, pianist and accompanist, known especially for his literary operas. His version of Shakespeare's King Lear, the opera Lear, was written at the suggestion of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who sang the title role.
> 
> Reimann was born in Berlin. After studying composition, counterpoint and piano (under, among others, Boris Blacher) at the Berlin University of the Arts, Reimann took a job as a repetiteur at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. His first appearances as a pianist and accompanist were towards the end of the 1960s. In the early 1970s, he became a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, and held a professorship in contemporary song at Berlin's Hochschule der Künste from 1983 to 1998.
> 
> Reimann's reputation as a composer has increased greatly with several great literary operas, including Lear and Das Schloss (The Castle). Besides these, he has written chamber music, orchestral works and songs. He has been honoured repeatedly, including the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Order of Merit of Berlin.
> 
> Invited by Walter Fink, he was the seventh composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival in 1997, in songs and chamber music with the Auryn Quartet, playing the piano himself.
> 
> His commissioned work, Cantus for Clarinet and Orchestra, dedicated to the clarinetist and composer Jörg Widmann, was premiered on January 13, 2006, in the WDR's Large Broadcasting Hall in Cologne, Germany, in the presence of the composer, who claims the work was inspired by Claude Debussy's compositions for clarinet.
> 
> His opera Medea, after Franz Grillparzer, was premiered at the Vienna State Opera in 2010, conducted by Michael Boder (de), with Marlis Petersen in the title role.
> 
> In 2011 he was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize "for his life's work". -Wikipedia


----------



## Guest

Now, this one interests me a lot too, but I haven't gone in deep yet. I've only listened to *Cantus* and sampled little bits of the cello works disc. I really want to listen to his operas, though. Anyone that was a colleague of Fischer-Dieskau is probably on a good path, anyway


----------



## Guest

I attended the US premiere of his opera _Lear_ in 1981--it was a devastating (in a good way...) experience! I like just about everything I've heard by him. His solo and chamber pieces make extreme demands on the musicians, but they are still listenable.


----------



## Guest

Currently listening to Melusine. Wow! What a composer!


----------



## Guest

Listening to his setting of King Lear today. Devastating indeed.


----------



## Guest

arcaneholocaust said:


> Listening to his setting of King Lear today. Devastating indeed.


It needs to be experienced live for the full effect. I recall the tiny handful of players in the orchestra pit who didn't play during the thunder storm scene ("Blow winds, and crack thy cheeks") had their ears covered to protect them from the frightful din! On the other end of the emotional and melodic spectrum, I think the music that accompanies Lear as he carries the body of Cordelia on stage is so haunting, as is the bass flute solo during one of the "Poor Tom" scenes. It's just a masterful piece.

Funny story. When I attended the premiere, the elderly woman next to me struck up a conversation before it began and said, "I didn't know that Verdi had made King Lear into an opera." Oh boy, was she in for a shock! I explained to her that it was by a contemporary German composer, Aribert Reimann, and he wasn't exactly Verdi. At intermission, she was almost too stunned to speak!


----------



## cjvinthechair

Two fine pieces - John 3, 16 for a cappella choir 



..and the Wolkenloses Christfest (here with Fischer-Dieskau)


----------



## Guest

Just ordered the recording of _Das Schloss_. Really wasn't ready to make the purchase till next week, money-wise, but I'd never seen a seller offer it for a reasonable price before, and there was "Only One Left In Stock"...


----------

