Wolfgang Rihm: Ernster Gesang

The living classic of German music Wolfgang Rihm wrote Ernster Gesang (Serious Song) in the 1990s at the behest of conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch as a composition intended specifically to be played before the music of Johannes Brahms. At the time, Rihm sought inspiration in Brahms's later songs and piano pieces, the harmonies of which enchanted him with their sharpness and at the same time dark sweetness. He derived the title from the Four Serious Songs that Brahms wrote for bass and piano a year before his death in Vienna.