The Berlin Philharmonic performs Jörg Widmann’s Violin Concerto
On Friday, October 26, the Berlin Philharmonic took to the stage to perform works by Benjamin Britten, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Jörg Widmann. Born in 1973, Widmann is a prolific German clarinetist and composer who has performed widely as a soloist and whose pieces have been played around the world. Studying clarinet first at the Academy of Music in Munich and then at Juilliard, Widmann also studied composition with Wilfried Hiller, Heiner Goebbels, Wolfgang Rihm, and Hans Werner Henze, who passed awaylate last week. On Friday’s program was Widmann’s violin concerto, written in 2006 and premiered in 2007 by the Young German Philharmonic. The violinist was Christian Tetzlaff, the same violinist who premiered the piece five years ago.
Jörg Widmann – Photo by Marco Borggreve
2012 sees the 60th birthday of the prolific composer Wolfgang Rihm and the London Sinfonietta curated a concert that included three UK premieres of Rihm works in addition to two works by composers who at some point in their training were taught by Rihm: Rebecca Saunders and Jörg Widmann.