Chicago Classical Review“Yet the fiery, dramatic reading led by the 77-year-old German conductor made one listen to this music with fresh ears. Consistently energized and with firm forward momentum, Rilling and the CSO invested this music with crackling fire and urgency…”
The New York Times“But under Mr. Rilling’s eminent baton, the reduced forces of the Philharmonic produced an impressively taut, buoyant and sharply etched sound, playing with a vibrant pulse and almost no vibrato. […] Mr. Rilling favored brisk tempos on Tuesday and the choir — distinguished by its precise diction, crisp articulation and control — sounded cleanly fluid even in the fastest passages.”
“Music should never be merely comfortable, never fossilized, never soothing. It should startle people and reach deep down inside them, forcing them to reflect.” Helmuth Rilling
Helmuth Rilling, born in 1933 in Stuttgart, is acclaimed worldwide as a conductor, pedagogue and Bach scholar. In 1954, he founded the internationally recognized Gächinger Kantorei choir, which joined forces with the Bach Collegium Stuttgart as its regular orchestral partner eleven years later. It was at this time that Professor Rilling began his intensive work with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Rilling has both fervently advocated neglected choral music of the Romantic period and promoted contemporary music by regularly commissioning and performing pieces by key composers of our time.
He has toured across Europe, the United States, Canada, Asia and South America, both as guest conductor and with his own ensembles. Maestro Rilling has collaborated with the world’s first-class orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and Japanese NHK-Symphony Orchestra. Over the last 30 years a special friendship has developed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom Professor Rilling has performed in more than 100 concerts.
He is co-founder and, until 2013, was Artistic Director of the Oregon Bach Festival, which since its inception in 1970 has become one of America’s most prestigious music festivals. In 1981, he established the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, which initially focused on the promotion of J.S. Bach’s music and in the course of time grew into an exceptional institution that excels not only in its ensembles (Gaechinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart) but devotes considerable resources to education and outreach through master classes, symposia and children’s programmes.
Working with young musicians from around the globe has always been a central focus of Rilling’s work. As part of a project of the Bach Academy Stuttgart, from 2001 -2009 he worked with the Festivalensemble Stuttgart, which led to the foundation of the Young Stuttgart Bach-Ensemble in 2011. Since 2014, Helmuth Rilling is the Artistic head and conductor of the Weimar Bach Cantata Academy, a master class for students from all over the world dedicated to the performance of Bach’s cantatas in their historic backdrop in Thuringia.
Through his worldwide network of Bach Academies, Rilling offers workshops for students across the globe. In recent years Maestro Rilling travelled to Japan, USA, China, Taiwan, Spain, Russia, Poland, Hungary and Italy. Current engagements include Academies in Taiwan and Hongkong and a production of Bach’s B minor Mass with his own “Bach Ensemble Helmuth Rilling” in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Helmuth Rilling’s inexhaustible, creative activity is documented in hundreds of CD, radio and television productions. He was the first to record all of the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach, and was the initiator of the International Bachakademie’s critically acclaimed project to record Bach’s complete works, released on 172 CDs during the Bach anniversary year in 2000. In the same year, Rilling won the coveted Grammy Award for his recording of Krzysztof Penderecki´s Credo, and was again nominated in 2001 for his recording of Wolfgang Rihm´s Deus Passus. Recent recordings include works by Haydn, Händel, and Gubaidulina, as well as a live recording of Britten’s War Requiem (Editor’s Choice Award of the British Gramophone Magazine), the Messiah by Sven-David Sandström, which Rilling commissioned, and Verdi’s Requiem. His recording of Honegger’s Joan of Arc has been published in 2014.
Helmuth Rilling received the UNESCO International Music Prize in 1994, and the Theodor Heuss Taten der Versöhnung (Deeds of Reconciliation) prize the following year. In 2003, he became an Honorary Member of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences, and in November 2011 Maestro Rilling was awarded the prestigious Herbert von Karajan Music prize in Baden-Baden. Helmuth Rilling was honoured for his unique lifetime engagement with Johann Sebastian Bach as well as his teaching activities around the world. In October 2013 Prof. Rilling received the ECHO Klassik live achievement award by the German Phono Academy.
