Simon Rattle conducts Bruckner and Widmann

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.«