Jörg Widmann conducts Beethoven and himself

Jörg Widmann conducts Mozart & Widmann

Jörg Widmann is both conductor and composer on this evening. During a short presentation, he will introduce his work “Armonica” for glass harmonica, accordion and symphony orchestra to the audience and explain the special features of the glass harmonica. The piece will then be played.Concert broadcast: The concert will be broadcast live on radio 3 on 27 March 2025 at 8 pm.

Jörg Widmann conducts Korngold and Mozart

In 1784, the publicist Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart enthused about the clarinet: »The character of the clarinet is: emotion dissolved in love – so completely the tone of the sensitive heart«. Carl Maria von Weber was also captivated by the orchestral instrument, still young at the time – especially because of his artistic friendship with Heinrich Joseph Baermann, the renowned clarinetist of the Munich Hofkapelle, who premiered the handsome concertino in 1811: an effect-packed piece with a sumptuous introduction, splendid variations and a sparkling finale. We look forward to the virtuoso interpretation of Jörg Widmann, who will also guide us through two other scores. Korngold, who was considered a musical genius and was later in high demand as a film composer in Hollywood, occasionally returned to his homeland after the Second World War. In 1950, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra played his symphonic serenade for the first time – with its sparkling melodies and dreamlike and rich nuances, it exudes a big share of nostalgia in remembrance of the long-gone era of Romanticism. Mozart's popular G minor symphony was composed in 1788 in a time when he was barely making a living as a freelance artist in Vienna. It fascinates with its grandiose melodic inventiveness and its individual instrumentation sans timpani and trumpets. The music displays »mysterious shivers« in affects such as restlessness, agitation, lamentation and desperation – a profound masterpiece that the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung praised with the words: »It will never fail to make an impact, always irresistibly captivating and sweeping away the listener's soul.«

musica viva: Jörg Widmann

The clarinetist, composer, and conductor Jörg Widmann is one of the shining lights of contemporary music. His credo is to combine tradition with new developments, resulting in timbres whose virtuosity, intensity, and directness both surprise and oftentimes confront the listeners, but also challenge them with quiet, fragile moments. The transparent, ethereal orchestral piece Armonica seems to defy the laws of gravity as it emerges out of nowhere. In the Trumpet Concerto, composed for Håkan Hardenberger, the sounds wander through space – like the trumpeter through the orchestra. A labyrinthine journey extending from wild and rugged orchestral abysses all the way to an open, utopian state of suspension.

Simon Rattle conducts Bruckner and Widmann

Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony has long been one of the composer’s underrated works. According to Sir Simon Rattle, this is because it doesn’t offer what people usually expect of a Bruckner symphony. It is shorter, more transparent and less solemn than usual, “a piece full of humour and daring”. Bruckner himself seems to have seen it that way, for he whimsically declared the Sixth to be his “boldest”. To open the programme, Simon Rattle conducts the world premiere of a horn concerto written by Jörg Widmann, this season’s Composer-in-Residence, for our principal horn-player Stefan Dohr.

Simon Rattle conducts Bruckner and Widmann

Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony has long been one of the composer’s underrated works. According to Sir Simon Rattle, this is because it doesn’t offer what people usually expect of a Bruckner symphony. It is shorter, more transparent and less solemn than usual, “a piece full of humour and daring”. Bruckner himself seems to have seen it that way, for he whimsically declared the Sixth to be his “boldest”. To open the programme, Simon Rattle conducts the world premiere of a horn concerto written by Jörg Widmann, this season’s Composer-in-Residence, for our principal horn-player Stefan Dohr.

Simon Rattle conducts Bruckner and Widmann

Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony has long been one of the composer’s underrated works. According to Sir Simon Rattle, this is because it doesn’t offer what people usually expect of a Bruckner symphony. It is shorter, more transparent and less solemn than usual, “a piece full of humour and daring”. Bruckner himself seems to have seen it that way, for he whimsically declared the Sixth to be his “boldest”. To open the programme, Simon Rattle conducts the world premiere of a horn concerto written by Jörg Widmann, this season’s Composer-in-Residence, for our principal horn-player Stefan Dohr.

Works by Dvořák, Widmann and Beethoven

Works by Dvořák, Widmann and Beethoven

Hrůša conducts Beethoven and Shostakovich

The Year 1905: Shostakovich’s monumental symphony meets Beethoven at his brightest. Unchained energy from conductor Jakub Hrůša, pianist Jonathan Biss and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.