Composer in residence:
Jörg Widmann
“He writes music that is like a vortex”, was the opinion of the critic writing in the Munich Abendzeitung about Jörg Widmann, composer born in 1973 – the “shining light” (Süddeutsche) of his generation, also renowned as a clarinettist and who has meanwhile been appointed professor for this instrument at the Freiburg Academy of Music. Widmann began to take lessons in composition already at the age of eleven, initially with Kay Westermann, then with Henze, Wilfried Hiller and Wolfgang Rihm. In 1999 Rihm entrusted Widmann the instrumentalist with the world performance of a clarinet concerto before Widmann himself was then awarded several prizes for his own œuvre.
Jörg Widmann, Photo: Manu Theobald
Widmann has long since become an independent composer and his catalogue of works already includes several music-theatre pieces, orchestral pieces, concerti, chamber music and vocal music. Titles such as Lichtstudien, Fieberphantasie and … umdunkelt … may serve as examples for which the proximity to non-musical elements is constantly tangible. Widmann was especially keen to become involved in experiments in multi-media. For instance in 1998/99, for the Kammerspiele in Munich, he composed incidental music to Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and Hekabe by Euripides. He made his debut in 2001 at the Donaueschingen Music Festival with the orchestral piece Implosion, which dispenses with high woodwinds or deep brass but requires at least a dozen percussion instruments, some of which are very exotic. Indeed Widmann has an inclination for unusual instruments. For Dunkle Saiten, for instance, three wine glasses have to be filled in such a way that they produce the notes A flat, B flat and B. Another original combination is the trombone with electric guitar in the chamber music piece Duell.
In his most recent music-theatre piece, which was given its world premiere in July 2003 at the Bavarian State Opera and is entitled Das Gesicht im Spiegel, Widmann dealt with contemporary issues such as genetic engineering and the madness of share trading. The Neue Zeitschrift für Musik found that “The wisdom and economy of his means, his dramatic intuition, the depth of his idea of sound, the beauty and bold breath of his tone and besides this his wit, cheekiness and humour and the fact that he almost never takes refuge in empty, normal avantgarde mannerisms – all this is so captivating because it is not bound by ideology.” It will be exciting to see how things develop. Widmann is sure of the following of renowned performers and people who will commission works from him. The Salzburg Festival has chosen Jörg Widmann as composer in residence 2004.
Jörg Rothkamm