Wolfgang Rihm – Lichtes Spiel
Year of composition: 2009
The title of Lichtes Spiel might be translated as « Light Game » or « Light Play », and may be taken as a pun on the German expression « leichtes Spiel », meaning « an easy job »; or what we might call « Child’s Play ». Wolfgang Rihm has said that he intended it as « a transparent orchestral movement… something light, but not ‘lightweight' ». The result, which uses instrumental forces of Mozartian proportions, is a detailed, finely wrought score in which the composer provides fine-tuned indications of how practically every note is to be articulated.
Instructions for tempo and mood are similarly precise. For example, the notation governing the opening section: Un poco sostenuto, non troppo lento, poco à poco più scorrendo (« A bit sustained, not too slow, bit by bit more scurrying »). It is the sort of directive one sometimes finds in Beethoven, particularly in his late works.
A fair amount of variety is incorporated into this work as well, and extends to its dynamics, which occasionally reach a point of relative loudness — most notably in a passage marked Allegro, un poco pesante (« Fast, rather heavy ») about three-quarters of the way through. Nonetheless, high volume is a rarity in this piece, which is overwhelmingly skewed toward the quiet end of the sonic spectrum. In fact, the overriding dynamic indication would appear to be pianissimo: the work begins and ends at this very quiet level, and it returns throughout as a sort of reference point from which the music may depart but to which it always returns.
THE BEST CLASSICAL MUSIC 