Rudi Spring

Rudi Spring (17 March 1962 – 28 December 2025) was a German composer of classical music, pianist and academic teacher. He also worked as a church organist and conductor. He was known for vocal compositions on texts by poets and his own, and for chamber music such as his three Chamber Symphonies. As a pianist, he played with several regular duo partners and made recordings of works by Bach and his sons, Schubert and Sibelius. He taught Lied interpretation at the Musikhochschule München from 1999.

Life and career Born in Lindau on 17 March 1962, Spring received piano instructions from , starting in 1971.

Composer Spring composed songs and song cycles, inspired by poems of Heinrich Heine and Hermann Lenz. His song cycle in four volumes Galgenliederbuch sets poems from Christian Morgenstern's collection. He wrote a song cycles Nero lässt grüßen after Martin Walser's monodram, So nah in der Ferne, setting poems by ), and a sequence of songs, Liederfolge für mittlere Singstimme und Klavier after poems by August Stramm, Else Lasker-Schüler, Ingeborg Bachmann and Jakob van Hoddis. Several of these works were recorded by Bayerischer Rundfunk, with singers such as Martina Koppelstetter.

Pianist Spring played in duo collaborating with the violinist Erich Höbarth from 1984 to 2005, with the hackbrett player Marianne Kirch from 1989 to 1997, with the violist Hariolf Schlichtig from 1990 to 1996, with the accordionist from 1994, with the vocalist Salome Kammer from 2000, and with the cellist Jessica Kuhn from 2005. He played the piano in a trio concert at the Gasteig, with Jens Josef (flute) and Graham Waterhouse (cello), performing Martinů's trio and the premiere of the flute version of Gestural Variations; every composer contributed a Christmas carol, with Spring setting "Maria durch ein Dornwald ging".

Recordings In 2008, two of his songs appeared on a CD of Salome Kammer, together with music of Cole Porter, Luciano Berio's Sequenza III, and Alban Berg, among others. He recorded keyboard works by Bach and his sons C. P.. E. Bach and W. F. Bach, released in 2000. He recorded piano Sonatas by Schubert in 2003 and 2004, and piano works by Jean Sibelius in 2009. after a heart attack.

Awards 1987: Feldkircher Kulturpreis 2005: Villa Massimo Risonanze, Op. 82b (2005), for flute, premiere 6 July 2005 in Rome, Villino of the Villa Massimo, Roberto Fabbriciani [born 1949])

For five to eight players

Praeludien, Op. 37 (1986/87), for string sextet and Klavier, premiere 12 May 1992 in Schwaz, , Spring (piano)), recorded in 1992 by ORF in Innsbruck

For ensemble/orchestra

Szene 1, Op. 10 (1981, revised 1987), for violoncello and orchestra, premiere 28 November 1981 in Prague, Heinrich Schiff, Prager Symphoniker, conductor Jiří Bělohlávek [born 1946] Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 63 (1995), for 12 brass players, premiere 6 June 1995 in Berlin Chamber Symphony No. 2, Op. 68 (1997), for clarinet/tenor saxophon, horn, percussion, accordion and string orchestra, premiere 12 February 1998 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz, Münchener Kammerorchester, conductor: Jobst Liebrecht

Literature