Widmann and Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

The Hebrides is one of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s most famous and beloved orchestral works. Inspired by the storm-lashed seas off Scotland’s west coast around the Hebrides archipelago, he created this melodically undulating and imaginative overture.

The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is led by the conductor, composer and clarinettist Jörg Widmann, who was featured at Konserthuset Stockholm’s International Composer Festival in 2023. In his music, he often enters into dialogue with earlier composers, as here with Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. We hear this in his orchestration of the beautiful Andante from the E flat major Sonata for clarinet and piano.

In Versuch über die Fuge, Widmann approaches Bach and the polyphonic style of the Baroque – with a twinkle in his eye – yet in an entirely personal way. The virtuoso soprano soloist is the German Sarah Maria Sun, noted for her ability to interpret both early and contemporary music.

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy also looked back in his Fifth Symphony – Reformation – written to mark the 300th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Reformation. Here, melodies from the 16th century appear, and at the same time the symphony, like Widmann’s Versuch über die Fuge, pays tribute to Bach.