Jörg Widmann - Three Shadow Dances for Clarinet | WDR Symphony Orchestra

Jörg Widmann's "Three Shadow Dances for Clarinet" was performed by the composer, clarinetist and "Artist in Residence" of the WDR Sinfonieorchester on 29.01.2021 at the WDR Funkhaus Wallrafplatz.
Jörg Widmann - Three Shadow Dances for Clarinet
00:00:00 I. Echo dance
00:03:01 II. (Under)Water Dance
00:06:49 III. african dance
Jörg Widmann, clarinet
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○ Introduction:
The shadow or, even better, the unfathomable world of its manifold nuances play a far greater role in Jörg Widmann's music than light, perhaps because surprises still await beyond the illuminated and thus familiar zones. Opening up new territory on the clarinet, his own instrument, however, also means a challenge for Jörg Widmann. "I tap myself on the fingers, as it were, when I write, because I want to avoid everything arising only from familiar combinations of fingerings," says the instrumentalist in an attempt to break through the familiar patterns of movement.
The three short dances each explore their own shadow world. In the echo games of the first, Widmann leaves simple and thus stereotypical contrast pairs such as "near and far" or "loud and quiet" far behind. In the "Echo Dance" one encounters quiet fortissimo as well as loud pianissimo. There are bright single tones, rough multiphonics, soft and hard. In addition, the world of microintervals opens up between the familiar intervals of tones as given by the western scales. Jörg Widmann understands the microintervals like emotions, as a rich shadow world to be explored. In the "(Under)Water Dance" the expression changes from one gesture to the next: from "shy" to "hesitant" and "lurking" to "threatening". Finally, the almost exclusively percussive "African Dance" is dedicated to the sounds of valves and breathing.
Not coincidentally, the three miniatures in their brevity and density are reminiscent of a microcosm of the possibilities of clarinet playing. Created in 2013 as competition pieces for the Beijing International Music Competition, they introduce existing and new experimental playing techniques. "Twenty years after my last solo piece for my instrument to date, the 'Fantasie' for solo clarinet, I fell in love anew with the soul and inner workings of this wonderful mystery instrument," Widmann confesses. Why he makes the clarinet dance, of all things, he does not reveal. But dancing fits the essence not only of his own playing, but of his music in general, to which he draws no boundaries between spirit, soul, and the stirrings and movements of the body. Or as the musicologist Max Nyffeler once wrote: "Whoever wants to understand the composer Jörg Widmann should first have heard the clarinetist Jörg Widmann."
(Text: Martina Seeber)

[@jestemqiqi7647]

Welch eine energiegeladene Aufführung dieser drei perfekt komponierten Stücke für Solo-Klarinette durch den genialen Komponisten selbst. Ein wahrer Virtuose!

[@WilfriedBerk]

Genial ! Auch Dank der tollen Aufnahmetechnik

[@WDRKlassik]

Danke!

[@berndbodenstein2258]

Grandios!
Ein virtuoser, inspiriender Musiker und Dirigent! Danke für das Teilen!
I ❤ ÖRR!

[@WDRKlassik]

Vielen Dank für Ihr herzliches Kompliment! Es freut uns sehr, dass wir Ihnen mit unserer Musik eine Freude bereiten können! 🥰

[@DannyPlass]

Wow! What an experience!

[@marcocresci]

Genius! Wonderfully recorded. Thank you.

[@WDRKlassik]

You're welcome!
We're glad that you like it 😊

[@machida5114]

quite good...

[@user-vg7mw7mp3o]

Super!!

[@WDRKlassik]

🤗

[@stephenjablonsky1941]

It is obviously easier to be a great clarinetist than to be a great composer.

[@pizza159]

8:40