infotext:
Impulses from tradition Perhaps the most significant characteristic of Jörg Widmann's work is the conscious acceptance of impulses from tradition. The preference for the emotional emphasis of the Romantic period, which is expressed in the connection to an expressive tone and in the recourse to tonal elements and traditional compositional procedures, is opposed to a reference to techniques and structural solutions of the post-war avant-garde, which over the years has resulted in an independent, has developed a personal style characterized by a strong need for expression. Because of this connection, the composer is able to use his works to recall basic moods and sensitivities that have become historical, musical forms of expression or even intellectual points of contact and in this way to reactivate culturally significant moments of the past - in the earlier works still more playfully and directly, in the more recent works, on the other hand, are more thought through and filtered through more differentiated compositional treatment. The Free Pieces for Ensemble (2002), ten miniatures, some of which are very short, bear witness to the composer's interest in dealing with the moment of concentration. For all the reduction in the horizontal, the score is downright lush in its vertical dimension, since Widmann falls back on an instrumentation that is highly variable in terms of timbre and uses it to tone down the pieces individually. Although each individual movement deals with its own tonal problem - for example with the pulse, the noise, the monophony or the overtone structures of the sound - the individual parts of the work are intertwined in such a way that the musical situation reached at the end (or its reflection ) becomes the beginning of the immediately following section. In this way, the composer links disparate elements together, giving the impression of a logical continuation despite the wealth of contrasts. How cleverly Widmann deals with elements of tradition here and reinterprets them in terms of sound becomes clear in No. III: A conventional minor seventh chord, emphasized by sforzato, is presented by the strings in high harmonics and thus touches on a listening area in which the interval perception changed and everything appears new. The reference to romantic topoi in the seven chants on a dead linden tree based on poems by Diana Kempff for soprano, violin, clarinet and piano (1997) comes into its own in an undisguised manner. Widmann composed the work in memory of the 1000-year-old linden tree in Münsing (Ammerland) that was struck by lightning during a concert in 1996 in a violent thunderstorm. Impressed by this event, the writer Diana Kempff (1945–2005), who lived locally, wrote a few poems and made them available to the composer, who then composed a kind of requiem using selected text fragments: The mighty linden tree – a symbol for the in romantic literature Longing for security in a world full of inner turmoil and alienation – her path through life and her death become the intellectual focus of this farewell music, which announces the relationship between man and the world and nature and focuses on the perception of time. Although the composer's work in this early work is partly very illustrative and direct - rumbling thunder and lightning strikes, for example, are reproduced with tonal drasticness, in the last movement the linden tree is even led imaginarily into the otherworld with bell-like piano sounds - it's easy to see how strong it is Even then, thinking in terms of sounds determined his work. Among Widmann's more recent works, the octet for clarinet, horn, bassoon, two violins, viola, cello and double bass (2004) occupies a special position. Right down to the character of the movement, the connection to that tradition of large-scale chamber music (e.g. by Ludwig van Beethoven or Franz Schubert) is recognizable, in which the tonal possibilities of the instrumentation, allowing both orchestral effects and very intimate chamber music moments, are predetermined. The pathetic opening gesture, the voices initially in unison, which gradually engage in an exciting game of suspension and resolution, or the blossoming of intimate melodic phrases in cello, horn and violin are elements that seem familiar and which the composer in the ›Intrada‹ describes as musical sets guidelines in order to reduce them ad absurdum in the further course. The ›Minuet‹, on the other hand, is based on the musical-scenic idea of Widmann's Jagdquartett (2003): A lively horn fanfare invites you to a happy hunt, but the cheerful mood turns into its opposite as the game progresses, because the hunt turns out to be a deadly affair. The heart of the octet, entitled ›Song without Words‹, contrasts the closed instrumental combination of the preceding movements with a groping one- and two-part voice, behind which a tone of sadness and isolation hides; Only in the subsequent ›Intermezzo‹ does Widmann bring the disparate forces together again to make music together. The beginning of the ›Finales‹ at first seems to close a musical circle by quoting the opening bars from the first movement, but this return comes to nothing to make room for a new approach with noise sounds. Despite the strictly contrapuntal and canonical sections, Widmann wants this movement to be understood as a 'night piece', a kind of anti-finale that denies the listener a crowning or apotheotic final effect. In doing so, he underscores his claim to show the elements taken from tradition in a new light and to take them further in an independent, sometimes very surprising way. Stefan Drees |
program:
free pieces 25:03
for ensemble (2002)
[01] I 01:26
[02] II 05:41
[03] III 02:46
[04] IV 00:57
[05] V02:34
[06] VI 02:01
[07] VII 02:43
[08] VIII 01:06
[09] IX 02:50
[10]X02:54
Seven chants on a dead linden tree 16:35
on poems by Diana Kempff
for soprano, violin, clarinet and piano (1997)
[11] Desolate as silence shatters time... 01:42
[12] Messenger of rain my beautiful… 02:11
[13] Soft air over the graves... 03:08
[14] But they come, sight the tree... 01:04
[15] And if death may come that way... 02:04
[16] Root upside down, crown clawing at the ground... 01:18
[17] In the trees our souls have been... 05:02
octet 24:00
for clarinet, horn, bassoon, two violins,
viola, cello and double bass (2004)
[18] Intrada 05:46
[19] Minuet 01:55
[20] Song Without Words 08:48
[21] Interlude 01:04
[22] Final 06:23
total time 65:44
Collegium Novum Zurich
Matthias Ziegler, flute1 Murat Cevik, flute1 · Matthew Arter, oboe1
Heinrich Mätzener, clarinet1/3 · Elmar Schmid, clarinet2
Manfred Spitaler, clarinet1 · Stefan Buri, bassoon1/3 Olivier Darbellay, horn1/3
Jörg Schneider, trumpet1 · Ulrich Eichenberger, trombone1
Christoph Brunner, percussion1 Jacqueline Ott, percussion1
Stefan Wirth, piano2 · Bettina Boller, violin1/2/3 Urs Walker, violin1/3
Hugo Bollschweiler, viola1/3 · Imke Frank, cello1
Martina Schucan, cello3 Johannes Nied, double bass1/3
Stefan Buri / Urs Walker, direction & studies3
Olga Pasichnyksoprano2
Jorg Widman, conductor1
(Free pieces1 · Seven swansongs to a dead linden tree2 · Octet3)
Press:
27.09.2010
Un romantico del siglo XXI
Como señalamos en su día, Jörg Widmann es un legítimo heredero de la música alemana de los últimos siglos, cuyos destilados se van alquitarando a través de sus partituras, repletas de ecos del clasicismo y, en mayor medida, del romanticismo. It tal la presencia de estas improntas que por momentos uno se llega a preguntar si estamos ante una suerte de reinterpretación o ante un continuador de dichos movimientos a través de una deriva histórica, de una constante que se ha mantenido a través de determinados compositores fell a dichas estéticas década tras década. Sea like fuere, en Widmann se produce un diálogo con el pasado, una permanencia del estilo y hasta de la forma, que se ha actualizado con técnicas instrumentales propias de nuestro tiempo, y que el alemán recibe de maestros como Helmut Lachenmann o Wolfgang Rihm, al que considera su maestro más directo (con una influencia más que notable).
With todo, la primera de las obras presentes en el disco de NEOS it la que más se desmarca de este discurso en cierto modo continuista o revisionista. Se trata de los Freiestücke (2002), en mi opinión una de las composiciones más logradas de Widmann. Libérrima partitura, que hace honor a su nombre, en ella el parametro del timbre cobra un peso sustantivo, así como su alianza con un discurso armónico extremo que permite una variedad de texturas, colors, formas y rutas sonoras de enormous atractivo. Constituido por diez piezas breves, su laconismo temporal no va de la mano de una contención en lo expresivo, que explora los recursos de un ensemble donde proliferan las síntesis tímbricas y la búsqueda de soluciones personales para las estructuras del sonido. La pluralidad de efectos, ambientes y sensaciones convocadas por Widmann se consiguen, sin embargo, con una unidad muy detachable, con lo cual estos estudios dan la sensación de conformar un todo empastado, a pesar de su idiosincrasia particular.
El ciclo de canciones Sieben Abgesänge auf Eine dead Linden (1997) fue escrito en la juventud del compositor y porta, quizás como el que más, ecos de cierto romanticismo, actualizado a través de influencias que destilan aromas a Rihm oa Kurtág. Basado en poemas de Diana Kempff (1945-2005), estos siete estribillos conforman una suerte de réquiem para el milenario tilo de Münsing, cuya destrucción por un rayo inspiró a la poetisa alemana, que envió sus textos al propio Widmann con objeto de dotarlos de musica. Árbol totémico del romanticismo (baste recordar el cuarto de los songs of a traveling journeyman de Mahler), a su sombra parecía cesar el dolor y comenzar la introspección en busca de una salida ad astra para las aflicciones mundanas causadas per aspera. Los elementos existenciales y filosóficos están presentes, de este modo, en las canciones de Widmann, junto a una amplia paleta descriptiva, con numerosos efectos que evocan la tormenta, diversos cromatismos, etc. Así, sombríos pasajes en sordina convivirán con compases expresionistas, así as fases mortecinas y estáticas con violentos crescendi. Las técnicas vocales e instrumentales aún no eran, en 1997, las que Widmann exhibe hoy en día, y más allá de algunos efectos sorprendentes en el arpa del piano, la obra resulta un tanto convencional en líneas generales.
Si el romanticismo flotaba a través de los Sieben Abgesänge, en el Oktett (2004) estos ecos llegan al clasicismo, ya desde los primeros compases, cargados de una fortísima impronta haydeana. Obra de carácter más abstracto y especulativo, este Octeto juega, como los de sus ilustres predecesores (con Schubert en la memoria, claro está), con el carácter cuantitativo de la formación, capaz de adquirir una sonoridad sinfónica, al tiempo que reducirse hasta un estilo plenamente intimista. En sus cinco movimientos, Widmann convoca diversos mundos, desde el romántico y emotivo 'Song without Words' al vivaz y dinámico 'Menuetto', cargado de reverberaciones de su Jagdquartett (2003), del cual dimos cuenta en nuestro diario [empty reseña] con motivo de su grabación por the Leipzig String Quartet (MDG 307 1531-2). Como fell heredero de la tradición germánica que es, en este octet resuenan formas tan afines a ese universo como el contrapunto o el canon, así como una relación de temas que se fugan entre los diversos movimientos que buscan compactar el conjunto, dotándolo de unidad. It is destacable como, en apenas siete años, se produce una notabilísima evolución a nivel técnico entre los Sieben Abgesänge y este Oktett, de escritura refinada y efectiva, resuelta con la facilidad de todo un maestro.
For lo que a las interpretaciones se refiere, éstas corren a cargo del Collegium Novum Zürich, un conjunto que en los últimos años viene incrementando notablemente su presencia en el mercado discográfico, que ha experimentado un importante salto gracias al sello NEOS. Una técnica impecable, una afinación delicadísima y una gran capacidad para conjugar la compleja síntesis de tradición y modernidad en Widmann, se alian a la dirección del propio compositor ya la presencia vocal de Olga Pasichnyk en las canciones, soberbia en todo momento. Sin alternatives for las piezas que son primera grabación mundial, estas interpretaciones del Collegium Novum se establecen como referencia. Ahora bien, para los Freiestücke sigo considerando referencial la increíble ejecución del Ensemble Modern a las órdenes de Dominique My para el sello Wergo (WER 6555 2), en el que considero mejor monográfico en el mercado del compositor muniqués. La rotundidad del ensemble de Frankfurt y su colorido instrumental converted su version en algo difícil de superar, por more que esta lectura suiza también albergue alicientes como para no desechar este disco aunque posean el de Wergo.
Las tomas sonoras son magníficas, like siempre en NEOS, in this case provenientes de the radio DRS helvética. Tratándose la música de Widmann de un organismo tan refinado, tan explorador del timbre, de las sutilezas y los matices, la perfección de los registros es siempre un valor a tener en cuenta, aunque en este sentido la discografía del alemán no puede entonar queja alguna . The presentación del compacto es muy buena, con unas breves notas de Stefan Drees, fotos, ejemplos de partitura y un attractive format.
Paco Yanez
14.08.2010
Tradition with wrong notes
The Ensemble Collegium Novum Zurich recorded three somewhat older works by the 1973 clarinetist and composer Jörg Widmann for the Swiss radio DRS and the NEOS label. The first piece, 'Free Pieces' from 2002, is conducted by Jörg Widmann himself. In each of the ten free pieces, the longest is a good five minutes long, the shortest not even one, Jörg Widmann pursues a compositional idea, such as glissando, noise or timbre melody. The extent to which the pieces are 'free' is unfortunately not explained in the booklet. They are very well orchestrated, entertaining and perfectly crafted compositions.
Even more than in the free pieces, Widmann draws on a tradition from the century before last with the 'Octet'. This also shows how excellent Widmann is at creating atmospheres and generating feelings. However, as in the free pieces, there is little that necessarily connects them to one another; each section stands all too much on its own. Seen from this point of view, the 'Free Pieces' seem to be more studies. Unfortunately, in the 'Oktett' it cannot be heard whether the Collegium Novum Zurich has difficulties with romantic and classical music because of the required gesture, or whether it is Widmann's intention that the ensemble, unlike in the 'Free Pieces', is quite sedate and doesn't play too coordinated. In the latter case, which is perhaps the more likely, one wonders in vain what the artistic necessity for it is. The CD is completed with the 'Seven Farewell Songs for a Dead Linden Tree', which the composer wrote in 1997 at the age of 24. Unfortunately, the text was not printed in the booklet.
Reactivation
In general, the artistic attitude of the three compositions recorded here is not really convincing. The music remains intentionally eclectic, interchangeable. There is little that is original, so that one can hardly assign a composition to the composer. Certainly, in Widmann's three works there are numerous and sophisticated reminiscences to the music of the century before last. But is it enough to activate feelings of the past? Are the works of the Romantic and Classical eras threatened in the concert halls? There was a time, not so long ago, when the government wanted new compositions to be easy for the public to grasp. So composers used a familiar musical language spiced with a few modern, out of the ordinary tones. Very many of the composers from this period are hardly played today, even if they defied the official guidelines and created really excellent compositions. No good art can be created under the conditions of official art specifications, according to the widely held view that is still propagated in the opposite direction today.
So it's quite astonishing when such respected ensembles as the Collegium Novum Zurich and the NEOS label record three compositions that, although they don't tie in with that period, nonetheless seem to be determined by a similar attitude. One learns from this that this attitude is actually socially acceptable. It just has to come from the right direction. For an art that looks to the present and the future rather than the past, that's a shame.
Patrick Beck
Interpretation:
Sound quality:
repertoire value: 
Booklets:
12.06.2010
06/2010
05/2010
05/2010
01.07.2010
The more I hear of Jörg Widmann's music, the less interesting it seems. It's ingenious, certainly, and full of deft sonorities, but once one has sampled the range of Widmann's tricks and historical conceits, the more trite and lacking in substance it seems. This is music about music, about the self-conscious awareness of being a composer at the beginning of the 21st century, with the awesome weight of tradition pressing in; it's not about continuing that tradition or taking it in a new direction. The mix of flavors in the 10 Freie Stück from 2002 – Ligeti and Lachenmann especially prominent – creates a highly palatable package, as well as an effective 25-minute showpiece for an expert ensemble, but leaves nothing but slickness behind. And the expressively overloaded vocal lines of the song cycle Sieben Abgesänge auf Eine dead Linde, a requiem to a famous lime tree destroyed by lightning during a concert, never quite come into focus. The 2004 Octet, for the same forces as Schubert's, constantly harks back to Schubert's 19th-century world, without ever creating a real dialogue between Widmann's own music, whatever that is, and the works he so obviously admires.
Andrew Clements