Jorg Widmann

Jorg Widmann - Elegie (2011) {ECM New Series 2110}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 267 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 159 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 15 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2011 ECM Records | ECM New Series 2110
Classical / Orchestral / Clarinet / Piano

Composer portrait of Jörg Widmann (b 1973 in Munich) with two major orchestral works bridged by Fünf Bruchstücke for clarinet and piano. The Messe was composed in 2006, Elegie in 2005 while the Bruchstücke are amongst Widmann’s earliest published pieces, composed in 1997. On the Bruchstücke he is joined by another great composer/performer, Heinz Holliger, heard here in a recording debut as pianist. Widmann’s astonishingly agile clarinet dominates the Elegie with a range of expression embracing trills, multiphonics and microtones. Christoph Poppen directs the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie with customary élan.

This is the 6th instalment of Haenssler’s critically acclaimed survey of Rihm’s orchestral music. Wolfgang Rihm celebrates his 60th birthday this year and this release is of two very melodic concertos. The works feature the phenomenally talented siblings Jörg and Carolin Widmann.

Bass-baritone Christian Immler, accompanied by the pianist Andreas Frese, juxtaposes the contemporary composer Jörg Widmann with the Romantic Schumann in three cycles of lieder written between 1849 and 2013. ‘For us, Jörg Widmanns song cycle Das heiße Herz (‘The Burning Heart’) is to be numbered among the very greatest song cycles, and not just among those of this century. During our intensive rehearsals with Jörg Widmann, the many questions we had (and what a joy to be able to ask them!) often had surprisingly simple answers. The combination with Schumann’s late Harper and Lenau song cycles seems absolutely perfect, for similar situations permeate these cycles as well". Das heiße Herz is recorded here for the first time.

Schumann composed Kreisleriana in April 1838, at the age of 27: “The youthful thing that I can identify with in Kreisleriana is its spontaneity", writes pianist Aaron Pilsan. "If I had to describe the piece, I would use the German word for crazy, ‘verrückt’, which doesn’t just mean crazy, but also to be disconnected from reality. So, crazy, imaginative and intimate… There is a huge connection between these two German composers, as Jörg Widmann was inspired by Schumann’s music a lot and even his musical language is very similar, even though their styles are obviously very different. The starting point for Widmann’s music is from feelings, from the emotions and sentiments and that is where there is a similarity, but not only there. He even quotes Robert Schumann in his tenth Humoreske, taking a bar directly from Schumann’s Geistervariationen."

It is often said that the string quartet is the "supreme discipline of chamber music". And indeed, the four-part movement of equal voices was and is a challenge. For Beethoven, for Brahms and also for Widmann. All three composers are represented in the program of this production.

For the opening of Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie concert hall, the German composer Jorg Widmann was commissioned to write a new oratorio for soloists, choirs, organ and orchestra, Arche.