The composer Aribert Reimann is dead. Reimann died on Wednesday at the age of 88 in Berlin, as his music publisher Schott Music (Mainz) announced on Thursday, citing the family. At his last public appearance in February, Reimann personally accepted the German Music Authors’ Prize from the collecting society Gema for his life’s work.
With his more than 70 works, he was considered one of the most important and most performed creators of contemporary music. The opera “Lear”, which premiered in 1978, made him world famous.
Music in the blood
Growing up in a musical family, Reimann studied composition with Boris Blacher and Ernst Pepping after graduating from high school in 1955. At the same time, he made a name for himself as a concert pianist and accompanist – especially for the singers Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Brigitte Fassbaender. He composed a large number of his songs for them, including the “Five Poems by Paul Celan” (1960).
Reimann wrote his first opera, “A Dream Game” after August Strindberg, when he was not yet 30 years old. In addition to the famous “Lear”, other major works for musical theater included “Troades”, “The Castle” and “Medea”.
Awarded for his life’s work
The Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, which honored him with its prestigious prize for his life’s work in 2011, called him the “undisputed master” of vocal music. “Aribert Reimann, who never followed the music business, never joined any direction, … has had a decisive influence on the musical scene of the last decades,” said the laudatory speech.
In addition, numerous instrumental works such as chamber music pieces, solo concerts and two piano concertos (1961 and 1972) were created. From 1974 to 1983 he held a professorship for contemporary song at the Hamburg University of Music, then for almost fifteen years at the Berlin University of the Arts.
In 1988 he founded the Busoni Composition Prize to promote young composers. His numerous awards included the Grand Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany.
