Et lux

Description

Here is the world premiere of a work by Wolfgang Rihm for vocal ensemble and string quartet created at the Cologne Philharmonic in 2009. "In this composition, fragments of the Requiem Mass can be heard. However, they do not appear 'intact' and in the established liturgical order, but emerge as elements recalled from a context gradually remembered, as in an anamnesis," explains Rihm. At the center of the work is the phrase "Et lux perpetua luceat" (and may the eternal light shine), the composer's intention being to "make the comforting yet deeply unsettling layers of these words felt." The German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote at the end of the world premiere: "Rihm's art of combining music and text in very different ways has already been greatly admired. Here, the sequence of musical elements and language reaches perfection."