Composer Aribert Reimann dies, dead and injured in a helicopter crash in Russia

German composer Aribert Reimann died in Berlin on Wednesday at the age of 88, 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 Author’s Award” from the copyright organization Gema for his life’s work.

With his more than seventy works, he was considered one of the most important and most performed makers of contemporary music. The opera ‘Lear’, which premiered in 1978, made him famous.

Reimann grew up in a musical family and 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 most of his songs for them, including the “Five Poems by Paul Celan” (1960).

‘Undisputed master’ of vocal music

Reimann wrote his first opera, ‘A Dream Game’, after August Strindberg, when he was not yet thirty years old. In addition to the famous “Lear”, other important works for musical theater included “Troades”, “The Castle” and “Medea”.

The Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, which honored him with the prestigious prize for his life’s work in 2011, called him the “undisputed master” of vocal music. The eulogy said:

In addition, numerous instrumental works were created, such as chamber music pieces, solo concertos and two piano concertos (1961 and 1972). From 1974 to 1983 he held a professorship for contemporary singing at the Hamburg University of Music, then for almost fifteen years at the Berlin University of the Arts. (sda/dpa)