Work of the Week – Jörg Widmann: Hornkonzert

Jörg Widmann is currently Composer in Residence with the Berlin Philharmonic. To mark the end of this collaboration, he has composed a new work for the orchestra and its principal horn Stefan Dohr. The Hornkonzert (Horn Concerto) will be premiered on 30 May at the the Philharmonie Berlin under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, the orchestra's former chief conductor.

The result is a horn concerto comprising seven movements and lasting almost 40 minutes. Seven has become a central number in Widmann's music, at least since his opera Babylon. After the introductory movement Traumbild (Dream Image), the second movement Andantino grazioso is characterised by Widmann's admiration for the music of Carl Maria von Weber. A theme from his Horn Concertino is lovingly orbited and varied here. The third movement, Scherzo à la surprise, is characterised by an extremely virtuoso performance by both the horn and the orchestra. A deceptive final character is revealed here.

Hornkonzert by Jörg Widmann: A Dream in Seven Movements

However, the emotional centrepiece of Hornkonzert is the Adagietto, a movement for solo horn only with strings, harp and celesta. In the fifth movement, Zwischenwelt (In-between World), the orchestra takes command in dense clusters of sound until the movement sinks into alienated overtone structures and fanfare gestures in sounds of noise and air. The enigmatic sixth movement, Vorahnung (Foreshadowing), is followed by the horn concerto, one of the few genuine finales that Widmann has written. Here, the attempt is made to bring together elements from all the preceding movements, to bundle them and organically lead them into a condensation of the simultaneously dark and abysmal and exuberantly light.

It has been a long-cherished dream of mine to write a horn concerto one day. I have loved the horn since my earliest youth. In Stefan Dohr I have found the ideal horn player to realise this ambition. In many conversations and sessions with him, I was able to delve even deeper than before into the peculiarities and characteristics of the sound of the horn. (Jörg Widmann)

Following further performances in the Berlin Philharmonie on 31 May and 1 June, Hornkonzert will receive its national premiere with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, the Brussels Philharmonic and the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra. The Berliner Philharmoniker commissioned the piece together with these orchestras.

Further Reading:

Jörg Widmann: Composer Profile

Hornkonzert: Work Details and Online Score 

Website Berlin Philharmonic

Foto: Berlin Philharmonic