musica viva: Jörg Widmann

musica viva: Matthias Hermann

A feast of sound for Helmut Lachenmann: The horn section and the BRSO, conducted by Matthias Hermann, will present the world premiere of the final version of My Melodies. The composition opens up an enormous range of performing possibilities and reveals new dimensions of sound, transforming the music to an “object of observation” and the concert hall to a “place of adventure” (Lachenmann). Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Yuko Kakuta will perform Lachenmann’s Got Lost: a highly virtuosic piece in which verses by Friedrich Nietzsche and Fernando Pessoa are juxtaposed with a short note about a lost laundry basket. The three texts are “stripped of their emotive, poetic, mundane diction […], and sent into a constantly changing intervallic field of sound, resonance, and movement” (Lachenmann).

musica viva: Johannes Kalitzke

The Swedish composer Lisa Streich, winner of the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, has an avowed “interest in the beauty of the imperfect.” Her Jubelhemd, which blends together diverse sonic layers, is named after the work of the same name by Austrian artist Markus Schinwald: a shirt that, with its arms stretched upwards, can only be worn in a gesture of jubilation. After this “Concerto Grosso,” Johannes Kalitzke appears in a double role as conductor and composer in the premiere of his Zeitkapsel, a dance of death for large orchestra, commissioned by musica viva. The concert will conclude with Luc Ferrari’s Histoire du plaisir et de la désolation, a sonic search for “new sensuality” which brilliantly fails in the final Ronde de la désolation with the “rupture of all logic” (Ferrari).

musica viva: Sir Simon Rattle

Simon Rattle’s conducting career is characterized by openness and renewal – and modern music has also played an important role in this. No surprise, then, that when Rattle takes up his post as Chief Conductor of the Chor and Symphonieorchester des BR, he will also conduct a musica viva concert. On the programme: the world premiere of Automatones, written by Vito Žuraj and commissioned by Bavarian Radio’s musica viva series. Extraordinary things are to be expected, since the Rihm student, born in Maribor, Slovenia, in 1979, is always causing a stir: “Contemporary music can be a lot of fun.” (Offenbach-Post) After the intermission, Rattle will conduct Coro for Choir and Orchestra by Luciano Berio: a confessional work in a “tragic mood” (Berio) that has lost none of its relevance today.

musica viva: François-Xavier Roth

Somber thoughts centering on death’s finality form the core of Iannis Xenakis’ Aïs: the wind instruments’ highly expressive sounds in the very first bars decidedly establish the overall emotional atmosphere, which subsequently materializes in Odysseus’ agonizing encounter with his deceased mother. Xenakis’ stirring ombra scene was commissioned by musica viva of the Bayerischer Rundfunk in 1980, and will now be performed once again by baritone Georg Nigl with François-Xavier Roth conducting. Additionally, Antoine Tamestit will perform the solo part in the world premiere of Francesco Filidei’s new Viola Concerto. The concert will also feature Elizabeth Ogonek, a New York-based composer whose iridescent sound frescoes have been described by the Chicago Tribune as “shimmering” and “dramatic.”

musica viva: Duncan Ward & Lawrence Power

Collisions: Before “the combustion engine and radio monopolized earth and air” (Ives), one could experience the stillness of night even in New York. In Central Park in the Dark, stillness is interrupted by distant noises – including a passing street band. A second dimension is also present in Sofia Gubaidulina’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra via a solo string quartet tuned a quarter tone lower than the other instruments of the orchestra. Both works provide the framework for this concert with internationally acclaimed guest conductor Duncan Ward. The centerpiece is the world premiere of sparks, waves and horizons by Minas Borboudakis, who describes his music as “a mixture of intensity, impulse and curiosity.” The concert also includes the work Čvor (Knot) by Serbian composer Milica Djordjević – named after the proverbial knot that bursts.

Jörg Widmann conducts Mozart & Widmann

JÖRG WIDMANN & HAGEN QUARTETT

Joined by the Hagen Quartett, Jörg Widmann continues his concert series exploring the history of the clarinet quintet from its beginnings to the present day. Their performance is dedicated to one of the last works written by Johannes Brahms. In the concert’s first half, the legendary Austrian ensemble presents the A-major String Quartet by Robert Schumann, one of the young Brahms’s early supporters.

musica viva | Wolfgang Rihm

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.«

Widmann | Reinecke | SWR Experimentalstudio

“I’m fascinated by the problem of composing intermediate spaces – that is, the spaces that lie often between polarities, however covert, fragile or breathless.” Mark Andre explores the transitions between spirit and matter with a passion and meticulousness second to none. Fixed variables are far less interesting to him than states of flux. He is concerned with experiences that only become possible when borders are crossed. The two solo pieces on this programme arose in close collaboration with two equally gifted performers: the clarinettist Jörg Widmann and the double bass player Frank Reinecke. Both are famous for probing their own mental and physical limits, over and over again. Andre and Reinecke worked on the double-bass piece iv 18 “Sie fürchten sich nämlich” for three years. Reinecke describes the result: “It’s always a question of the ineffable. We’re suddenly very close to a secret, but the closeness doesn’t unveil the secret”. Fear and bliss lie cheek by jowl in the musical world of Mark Andre – and it’s almost always the Bible that opens the gateways to new dimensions.