Works
Chamber music
Rilke Lieder (Rilke Songs, 2026)
Three songs for Alto voice/Mezzo voice/Soprano voice and piano
8'
1. Die Trennung (The Separation)
2. Das Verlassen (The Abandonment)
3. Der Dichter (The Poet)
The Rilke Songs are a compilation of poetry by one of Austria's most influential poets Rainer Maria Rilke. Rilke's poems convey his expressionism, mysticism and subjective experiences in ways which have notably impacted German poetry in the early 1900s.
The first song Die Trennung (The Separation) portrays 8-year-old René's first poem, Für Eueren Trauungstag, which he wrote as an anniversary gift for his parents. That same year, the divorce of his parents marked an ending of his happy childhood era. The poem from the second song Das Verlassen (The Abandonment) was a birthday gift from Rilke to his only child Ruth, who, already as a baby, was given to Rilke's wife Clara Westhoff's parents to raise. Ruth's relationship to her father Rainer was almost exclusively epistolary, as was Rainer's marriage after only a brief period together. The third song Der Dichter (The Poet) is the only poem in this song cycle that was ever published – a poem by a seasoned poet, who only ever knew how to love his loved ones from afar. Rilke Lieder was commissioned by the International Hugo Wolf Academy Stuttgart for the International Art Song Competition Stuttgart 2026. Publisher: Edition Wilhelm Hansen.
Premiere: October 2, 2026
Stuttgart, Germany
Performers: TBA