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Widmann & Schumann Quartett

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Programme

Joseph Haydn: String Quartet No. 21 in E flat major Op. 17 No. 3
Jörg Widmann: Jagdquartett
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Quintet for Clarinet, Two Violins, Viola and Cello in A major KV 581

Performers

Jörg Widmann - clarinet
Schumann Quartett

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22 . 5 . 2021

Saturday 17.00

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Artist-in-Residence

The first of three appearances by Artist-in-Residence of this year’s Prague Spring, German clarinetist and composer Jörg Widmann, brings a blend of his own music and works by the Viennese classics. “In his compositional endeavours Widmann often takes his inspiration from the past,” states Programme Director Josef Třeštík. “His Jagdquartett borrows its title from Mozart’s “Hunt” quartet. The true inspiration for this spectacular piece, however, in which the superb Schumann Quartet will not only perform on their instruments but also act out roles during an imaginary chase, is the music of Robert Schumann.” The programme will culminate in one of Mozart’s most exquisite works, the Clarinet Quintet in A major. “To be able to play music in Prague by one of the “saints of the city” is something quite exceptional for me,” Widmann himself adds.

Jörg Widmann Composer-Clarinettist
Photo: Marco Borggreve

The seclusion afforded by the Esterházy Palace (Eszterháza), where Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) spent twenty-five years of his life, was only ostensive: in reality, what he found there was a European musical hub with a lively exchange of information and a veritable creative powerhouse. The art-loving Prince Nikolaus Esterházy spent most of the year at his family seat, yet all his employees and musicians lived there separated from their families. These were ideal conditions for focused work, as Haydn remembered later on: “I could experiment, observe what heightened the effect and what weakened it, and so I could improve, expand, erase, take risks; it’s true that I was cut off from the world, there was no-one near me to torment me or make me doubt myself,” and he added with a hint of humour: “And so I had to become original!” When he was writing his string quartets Op. 17, he had at his disposal a wonderful group of talented musicians, who included the young violin virtuoso Luigi Tomasini. These string quartets, with their beguiling expression, intensity and melodic beauty in the slow movements, their wealth of invention and highly developed four-movement form, are far removed from the realm of his earlier graceful, light quartets-divertimenti; the spirit of the latter is evoked only in the dance movements, as illustrated by the third part of the free cycle of opus 17, String Quartet No. 21 in E flat major.

Jagdquartett (Hunt Quartet) is a string quartet in a single-movement, “evil scherzo” form incorporating clever theatrical input from the players themselves. The title, however, refers to Mozart’s “Hunt” quartet KV 458 in name only. It opens with a short signal cry from the performers, followed by a theme in a dotted rhythm which Jörg Widmann (1973) borrowed from the Finale of Schumann’s piano suite Papillons Op. 2. The motif is strongly reminiscent of the incipit of the Czech folk song “When I used to walk through the woods”, however, the idyll ends there. Widmann’s music develops into a wild piece faithfully imitating social patterns of human behaviour, where the hunter becomes the hunted and ultimately the quarry, the latter embodied by the cello, against which the other instruments of the string quartet conspire. The raging character of the music, reinforced with harsh wit and perpetual exaggeration, can now scarcely conceal the sober subtext which permeates it with increasing intensity before the play topples over in the final dramatic scene: the fragments of Schumann’s theme are now reduced to gnawed bones as we hear a last cry from the slaughtered prey. The Hunt Quartet was written in 2003 and is dedicated to the Arditti Quartet.

Very few chamber works, perhaps with the exception of Brahms, evoke such a stirringly nostalgic mood as Clarinet Quintet in A major KV 581 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). The Romantic elements anticipating what was to come are evident in his music earlier on, however, only rarely did they rise to the surface so naturally in a continuous strand of uninterrupted lines, amid the harmonic tension of major and minor keys. Mozart wrote Quintet in A major in late September of 1789 for his friend, the clarinetist Anton Stadler (1753–1812), who performed in the 1791 premiere of the coronation opera La clemenza di Tito, in which the composer had written several short solos for him. Mozart admired Stadler’s mastery and wrote two of his immortal works for him, which he also dedicated to the clarinetist: Clarinet Quintet KV 581 and Clarinet Concerto KV 622, both in the key of A major. He apparently intended these works to be played on the basset clarinet, an alto version of the instrument with an extended lower register which Stadler probably used for the premiere of the quintet in December 1789. In the words of the Romantics, the clarinet quintet conveys the music of Mozart’s heart – exquisite, seductive and deeply soulful.

Fire and energy

“Fire and energy. The Schumann Quartet plays staggeringly well,” wrote Süddeutsche Zeitung critic Harald Eggebrecht. Highlights of the Schumann Quartet’s previous season included the culmination of their collaboration with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York, which the quartet began in December 2016 with their invitation to join the prestigious Bowers Program. The ensemble also undertook two tours of the United States, they appeared at festivals in Germany, Switzerland, France and the Netherlands, and they gave concerts in London, Munich, Hamburg, Madrid and Berlin.

Artist-in-Residence Jörg Widmann

“It’s a great honour to be asked to assume the role of Artist-in-Residence at the Prague Spring. I’m delighted to accept it,” says German clarinetist and composer Jörg Widmann. “My work has taken me to virtually all the world’s music centres, but never to Prague, the city coveted by all those who love literature and music.” Widmann’s residency will include three concerts highlighting favourite composers who were key to his composition work, and featuring examples of his own music.

During the Chamber Music Weekend he will appear at St Agnes’ Convent, first with the superb Schumann Quartet (22 May), then in a recital with Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin (23 May). His residency will culminate in a performance of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major with the PKF-Prague Philharmonia headed by its Chief Conductor Emmanuel Villaume (31 May). He will also be giving a master class as part of his residency (30 May).

Born in Munich, Widmann’s route to composition led via his clarinet. He grew up in a musical family and his earliest memories are of his parents’ home music-making and a trip to the opera, where he heard Der Freischütz. To this day Weber is an absolute favourite of his, as attested by his Prague Spring concert with Denis Kozhukhin, and the album released in 2020 on the dynamic Alpha Classics label dedicated to this early Romantic.

Widmann began to play the clarinet at the age of seven, and as soon as he had managed to coax a few notes from the instrument, he began to improvise. Widmann himself stated that his desire to compose was born of the sorrow he felt for these forgotten improvisations. His memory wasn’t serving him well enough, so he finally got himself some manuscript paper.

In addition to his clarinet studies in Munich and later in New York at the prestigious Juilliard School, he sought consultation in his compositional endeavours from such heavyweights as Hans Werner Henze, Wolfgang Rihm and Heiner Goebbels. He had always admired Helmut Lachenmann and later met Pierre Boulez as well. Unlike his contemporaries, who had posters of David Bowie and Michael Jackson in their rooms, young Jörg had Pierre Boulez on his wall. And while Germany’s young generation cultivated and embraced the emerging techno scene wholeheartedly in the early Nineties, 20-year-old Widmann was diligently composing and, inspired by this pulsating rhythmic genre, he came up with the piece 180 beats per minute. He apparently never attended any techno gigs; what was far more important for him was the unusually rich and colourful musical history of the genre to which he dedicated his life and his music. His works reflect an intricate web of characteristic gestures, intimated, vague quotations, respectful nods to the past, and sly references ranging from Bach to his own contemporaries. “Jörg Widmann is very much a child of our time. Everything is accessible, and he takes in these influences. So his music can be chaotic when you first hear it, it’s complex, it can be very melodic, it can even be kitschy sometimes. But it’s done with a purpose.”

These were the words pronounced by Austrian conductor Franz Welser-Möst when he conducted Widmann’s Trauermarsch in Carnegie Hall in 2009, expressing the reasons for the artist’s renown as a composer. Now forty-seven, Widmann has seen his music appearing regularly on the concert programmes of traditional symphony orchestras over the last few years – the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and many others. The Czech Philharmonic has performed his work as well. We will frequently also find his name on programmes for concerts given by ensembles specialising in contemporary music, such as Ensemble Intercontemporain and Klangforum Wien, to mention two high-profile chamber orchestras. He has published more than 100 of his compositions, including twenty orchestral works, around ten instrumental concertos, and a full-length opera, Babylon.

If there’s a simple explanation for Widmann’s openness to influences from the past – take his Con brio, for instance, which quite clearly manifests the ethos of Beethoven’s Seventh and Eighth Symphonies – it seems to lie with his parallel stellar career as a clarinetist. He has performed chamber music with the likes of András Schiff, Daniel Barenboim and Mitsuko Uchida. As a soloist he has appeared with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Orchestre National de France, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and the Vienna Philharmonic. Moreover, many composers have written works expressly for him, such as his mentor and teacher Wolfgang Rihm, Mark Andre, or Czech composer and member of the Prague Spring Artistic Board, Miroslav Srnka.

“How does one cope creatively with the pressure of that long classical tradition?” asks The Guardian. “I’m humble,” he states with an awkward grin. “As a player, I’m in touch with these masterworks every day. I love them! So I write pieces about my love.”

As one might surmise from his Prague Spring concerts, the essence of Widmann’s individuality is chiefly rooted in his regard for the legacy of the Classical and Romantic composers. The fervour and passion with which he speaks of the music of Weber, Mendelssohn, Schumann or Mahler is infectious. His profound knowledge of the Classical repertoire is inspirational. The expression of humility conveyed to The Guardian is not exaggerated: He received requests to write a clarinet quintet on many occasions, but he long declined the offers – he regards Mozart’s and Brahms’s quintets as works of genius and he felt he should first mature as a composer before embarking upon a piece for the same instrumental ensemble. His love for the German Romantics is also reflected in the titles of his works – the trilogy for orchestra Lied, Chor and Messe, Trauermarsch for piano and orchestra, which he wrote for pianist Yefim Bronfman, or Teufel Amor [Devil Cupid], a large-scale orchestral piece, inspired by a fragment of Schiller’s poem of the same name, which reads: “Sweet Amor, remain in melodic flight”. Widmann interprets the line of verse by stating that, in love, as in music, we try to capture something indefinable, something that goes beyond us and brings us to wonderment and also to despair. Such is the mystery of life and art.

Financial support:

The joint appearance of Jörg Widmann and the Schumann Quartet is part of a project initiated by Mozartfest Würzburg, the oldest Mozart festival in Germany, which celebrates its 100^th anniversary in 2021. The artists’ tour will take them to Prague and four other European cities which played an important role in Mozart’s life.