Wolfgang Rihm - Canzona nuova (1982-2006) für fünf Bratschen

Canzona nuova (1982-2006) für fünf Bratschen [for five violas]
Composer: Wolfgang Rihm (1952-2024)
Performer: Christophe Desjardins, viola
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"It was precisely after having heard Luigi Nono’s string quartet Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima, that Wolfgang Rihm composed his Canzona for four violas in 1982. But, unable to attend the first performance, which was given in Munich, amazingly he had never heard the piece until I sent him the recording of the concert in which I had played it in 2003. The project of a new piece became reality following exchanges established on that occasion. Canzona nuova takes up exactly the text for four violas of Canzona, but adding a fifth - or rather a first - part, which includes cadential and solo episodes that are clearly differentiated from the other voices. The work exists in two versions: for five violas or for viola and four recorded violas, a simple arrangement allowing, in this second case, to decide in real time the duration of suspensions and fermate. It is the recording of this tape - in truth, my first experience with re-recording - which I used for this disc.
The idea ‘of a libertarian, anarchic music, libidinal, escapist, playful and Dionysian’, reflected on the conception of the form. ‘The piece that comes into being is the articulated research of this piece,’ says the composer, adding: ‘I was always fascinated by the idea that a work, especially musical, unfolding in time and resulting from time, can also represent the path taken to find it: the work not only as final result but as the path towards its genesis - that is what has always moved me’.
Claiming the right to superimpose and multiply the allusions without at all falling into a ‘quotational’ art, Wolfgang Rihm summons up a fascinating typology of viola timbres and colours, starting from which the work advances with slow and infinite gourmandise."
~ Christophe Desjardins (translated by John Tyler Tuttle)
Source: CD booklet
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[@christophedevos3760]

Idiosyncratic Rihm, in memoriam. Thank you for sharing.

[@mrtchaikovsky]

I love the sound of the viola (I prefer it to the violin), so I had no choice but to click.

[@nohaylamujer]

Thank you!