"On 13 March, Wolfgang Rihm will celebrate his 70th birthday ... These performances, with Tamara Stefanovich, Christian Gerhaher, Tabea Zimmermann and Jörg Widmann as the outstanding soloists, come from Musica Viva, Munich's annual new-music series, and bring together two of Rihm's works from the beginning of the century with the Stabat Mater, for baritone and viola, of 2020. They also demonstrate vividly how protean Rihm's music can be, and are a reminder of how, throughout his career, his music has always been in a dialogue with the past, and of how he has never been afraid to use whatever musical language seemed appropriate".