International Composer Festival – Idyll and abyss

Composer, clarinettist and conductor Jörg Widmann is currently one of the most acclaimed names in the world of classical music. His shifting, richly varied and imaginative music is often associated with familiar classical and romantic composers, such as Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms, but it is simultaneously unmistakably rooted in our era. His unique blend of tradition and innovation has made him one of the world’s most frequently performed contemporary composers.

A brilliant example is the Schubert tribute Idyll & Abyss, which we hear parts of, with Widmann performing the solo piano part. In the Hunt Quartet for string quartet, the focus shifts back to Robert Schumann. Widmann borrowed this typical hunt theme from his own Papillons for piano. 

Widmann’s versatility is evident; he is a prominent clarinettist who trained first in Munich and then at The Juilliard School in New York. We hear him here in Drei Schattentänze – Three Shadow Dances – for solo clarinet. The Etudes for solo violin are composed in the same tradition as Paganini’s Caprices and the piano etudes by Chopin, Liszt and Ligeti. This demanding music is performed here by his sister, Carolin Widmann, who is also the soloist in his second violin concerto on Saturday.