Rihm, Wolfgang - Quid est Deus/Ungemaltes Bild/Frau, Stimme - Cambreling, Sylvain

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A further volume in the edition of the orchestral works of Wolfgang Rihm. Since he is one of the most prominent composers not only in Germany but also worldwide such an edition is long overdue. Rihm's works are performed and admired internationally. The composer's association with the two orchestras of the SWR, the SWR Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden and Freiburg and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony of the SWR, now goes back many decades, and both orchestras have performed various premieres of works by this Karlsruhe composer. This edition of Rihm's orchestral works has been produced in cooperation with the composer and contains numerous world-premiere recordings.

The premiere of Quid est Deus was held on 4 November 2007. The work is constructed on the basis of the twenty-four definitions of God brought together in one of the most important documents of European theosophy. Wolfgang Rihm set these mysterious definitions of the Undefinable for choir and orchestra. "Woman/Voice" is a role designation from Heiner Müller's revolutionary work Der Auftrag, from which Rihm took a text. The title of the third work on this CD, Ungemaltes Bild, refers to the "unpainted pictures," to the more than one thousand small-format watercolors painted by Emil Nolde while he was prohibited to exercise his profession in Nazi Germany. He planned to transfer them "to oil" at a later date but for the most part was no longer able to do so.