Reimann 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. His opera Medea after Grillparzer's play premiered in 2010 at the Vienna State Opera. He was a professor of contemporary song in Hamburg and Berlin. In 2011, he was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize for his life's work.

Life and career

Reimann was born in Berlin. He studied composition, counterpoint and piano at the Musikhochschule Berlin with Boris Blacher and Ernst Pepping, among others. During his studies, he worked as a repetiteur at the Städtische Oper. His first appearances as a pianist and accompanist were in 1957. In the early 1970s, he became a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. He was professor of contemporary song at the Musikhochschule Hamburg from 1974 to 1983, then 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. 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, with Marlis Petersen in the title role.

In 2011 he was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize "for his life's work".

Awards

Reimann received many awards:

• 1962 Berliner Kunstpreis für Musik (Junge Generation) – Berlin Art Prize for Music (Young Generation)
• 1963 Villa Massimo scholarship
• 1965 Robert-Schumann-Preis der Stadt Düsseldorf
• 1966 Förderungspreis der Stadt Stuttgart
• 1985 Großes Verdienstkreuz des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany)
• 1985 Braunschweiger Ludwig-Spohr-Preis – Ludwig Spohr Prize of Braunschweig
• 1986 Prix de composition musicale de la Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco – Prize for musical composition, from the Prince Pierre of Monaco Foundation
• 1987 Bach Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg
• 1991 Frankfurter Musikpreis
• 1993 Officier de "L'Ordre du Mérite Culturel" de la Principauté de Monaco
• 1993 Pour le Mérite for Arts and Sciences, Germany
• 1995 Großes Verdienstkreuz mit Stern des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany)
• 1999 Commandeur de "L'Ordre du Mérite Culturel" de la Principauté de Monaco (Commander of the Order of Cultural Merit of the Principality of Monaco)
• 1999 Goldene Nadel der Dramatiker Union
• 2002 Preis der Kulturstiftung Dortmund
• 2002 Berliner Kunstpreis
• 2006 Arnold Schönberg Prize
• 2011 Ernst von Siemens Music Prize
• 2016 Robert Schumann Prize for Poetry and Music Mainz
• 2018 Deutscher Theaterpreis Der Faust (lifetime achievement award)

Works

Stage

• Ein Traumspiel (libretto by Carla Henius, after Strindberg's A Dream Play, translated by Peter Weiss, premiered on 20 June 1965 at the Opernhaus Kiel
• Melusine (after Yvan Goll) (1971)
• Lear (after William Shakespeare's King Lear) (1978)
• Die Gespenstersonate (after August Strindberg's play The Ghost Sonata) (1984)
• Troades (after Euripides' The Trojan Women) (1986)
• Das Schloß (after Franz Kafka's Das Schloss) (1992)
• Bernarda Albas Haus (after Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba)
• Medea (after part 3 of Franz Grillparzer's Das goldene Vlies [de]) (2010)
• L'Invisible (after Maurice Maeterlinck's L'Intruse, L'Intérieur and La Mort de Tintagiles) (2017)

Orchestral

• Variations for Orchestra
• Nahe Ferne (Near Distance)
• Cantus für Klarinette und Orchester (Cantus for Clarinet and Orchestra)
• Sieben Fragmente für Orchester in memoriam Robert Schumann (Seven Fragments for Orchestra, in memoriam Robert Schumann) (1988)

Vocal music

• Zyklus nach Gedichten von Paul Celan für Bariton und Klavier (Cycle based on the poetry of Paul Celan for baritone and piano) (1956)
• Wolkenloses Christfest Requiem nach Gedichten von Otfried Büthe, dedicated to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Siegfried Palm (1974)
• Nachtstück II für Baryton und Klavier (1978)
• Unrevealed, Lord Byron to Augusta Leigh für Bariton und Streichquartett (1981)
• Requiem für Sopran, Mezzosopran, Bariton, gemischten Chor und Orchester unter Verwendung des lateinischen Requiemtextes und von Versen aus dem Buch Hiob (1982)
• Shine and Dark für Bariton und Klavier (left hand) (1989)
• Entsorgt für Bariton-Solo (1989)
• Eingedunkelt für Alt-Solo (Eingedunkelt for Alto Solo) (1992)
• Fünf Lieder nach Gedichten von Paul Celan für Countertenor und Klavier (Five Songs based on the poetry of Paul Celan for countertenor and piano) (1994/2001)
• An Hermann für Tenor und Klavier (2008)