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World Premiere of Jörg Widmann's Clarinet Quintet with the Hagen Quartett

Mar. 30, 2017

World Premiere of Jörg Widmann's <em>Clarinet Quintet</em> with the Hagen Quartett

On April 24, Jörg Widmann’s new Clarinet Quintet receives its premiere at the Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid. The single-movement work features Widmann as clarinetist alongside the Hagen Quartett. 

For a clarinetist who frequently performs with string quartets, the Clarinet Quintet is a strange omission from Widmann’s catalogue of works. Until now, Widmann’s performance programs have included works primarily by Mozart, Brahms, Weber, and – in a slightly altered or extended instrumentation – Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, alongside Widmann’s own sextet Fieberphantasie. This gap in his oeuvre is finally filled with his first Clarinet Quintet, which is sure to quickly become a regular part of the chamber music repertoire.


(Audio: Jörg Widmann Fieberphantasie for piano, string quartet and clarinet)

Following its premiere performance, Widmann and the Hagen Quarttet tour the work internationally in 2018, with performances in Paris, Switzerland, Amsterdam, Essen, London, Salzburg, and New York.

This month also sees the New York premiere of Widmann's Sonatina facile, for solo piano, performed by Mitsuko Uchida on March 30 at Carnegie Hall. Carnegie presents a repeat performance on April 2 (alongside Widmann's Fantasie for solo clarinet and works by Schumann, Berg and Brahms) as part of a joint recital with Widmann and Uchida. You can hear a recording of Widmann's earlier piano works below, recorded by Jan Philip Schulze for WERGO Records: 

From April 7 - 9, Widmann curates a series of three performances at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, TX as the Center’s Composer-in-Residence. The performances include the US premiere of his song cycle Das heiße Herz, with baritone William Sharp and pianist Seth Knopp, alongside the complete cycle of his five string quartets with the Minguet Quartett and soprano Claron McFadden. 

For more information about Jörg Widmann, visit schott-music.com.

Jörg Widmann
Clarinet Quintet (2017)
for clarinet and string quartet

Fieberphantasie (1999)
for piano, string quartet and clarinet in Bb (bass clarinet in Bb)
13’

Sonatina facile (2016)
after Mozart's Sonata in C Major K. 545
for solo piano
10'

Fantasie (1993)
for solo clarinet
7'

Das heiße Herz (2013, rev. 2015)
for baritone and piano
text (Ger) from poems by Gedichten von Klabund, Clemens Brentano, Peter Härtling, Heinrich Heine and from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
40'

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