Tagged with 'Robert Schumann'

He has always admired composer Robert Schumann and often drawn inspiration from his works: Jörg Widmann’s new piece, Schumannliebe (“Love for Schumann”), for voice and ensemble will have its world premiere at the Casa da Música in Porto, Portugal on October 4th, 2023. Baritone Matthias Goerne will perform alongside the Remix Ensemble under the direction of Peter Rundel. 

On 8 August 2018, Christian Jost’s song cycle Dichterliebe for tenor and 9 instrumentalists will receive its Danish premiere at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen. Jost himself will conduct the Horenstein Ensemble and tenor Peter Lodahl, with accompanying media scenography by Tabea Rothfuchs.

Dichterliebe was commissioned by the Berlin Konzerthaus and the Copenhagen Opera Festival, and received its world premiere at the Berlin Konzerthaus on 21 October 2017. The work is inspired by Robert Schumann’s well-known Dichterliebe op. 48 based on poems by Heinrich Heine. Jost’s reinterpretation changes and increases the cycle’s instrumentation, as well as doubling its length, effectively integrating Schumann’s romantic art song with his own modern style. The music is further supplemented by video sequences which provide a visual representation of the songs’ themes.

Christian Jost - Dichterliebe: reaching further and deeper

The 16 songs of Schumann’s cycle tell a sorrowful story of lost love. The singer’s expressions shift through pain, indifference, sorrow and joy, perhaps in a dream or perhaps reality. In Heine’s poems, the river Rhine acts as a symbol for this stream of emotions, and Jost’s songs also flow. The tenor seems to surface time and again out of the dense, wave-like instrumental accompaniment of legato ostinato, and the harmonies and melodies of Schumann’s composition are developed by Jost into a tonal stream. For example, the short motifs from Schumann’s piano accompaniment are expanded by Jost throughout the whole cycle with greater depth.

“The idea of reaching further and deeper in terms of harmony and texture runs through the entire song cycle, especially in the connecting passages between songs. While Schumann’s original songs are self-contained, my transitions form a harmonic sea, in which the songs are individual islands woven organically into a larger, newly created composition.” – Christian Jost

A second performance of Dichterliebe will take place on 9 August at the Royal Danish Theatre. The Staatstheater Braunschweig will present a new production of the work in a series of 10 performances next season, and a Polish premiere is planned for 2019.

• Christian Jost - profile


• Dichterliebe - work details


• Copenhagen Opera Festival

 

©photo: Tabea Rothfuchs

On 31 July, Huw Watkin’s new chamber work Four Fables for clarinet and piano trio will receive its world premiere at Three Choirs Festival in Hereford, performed by clarinettist Robert Plane and the Gould Piano Trio.

Four Fables was co-commissioned by the Corbridge Chamber Music Festival in celebration of its 20th anniversary, Swansea International Festival, Three Choirs Festival and Wigmore Hall. Watkins composed the work specifically for Robert Plane, who is principal clarinettist for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, where Watkins holds the position of Composer-in-Association.

Huw Watkins - Four Fables: Fanciful character

As the name suggests, Four Fables is comprised of four movements, with slower Lento movements encircling a faster Allegro second movement. The unusual instrumental combination of clarinet, violin, cello and piano is one made famous by Olivier Messiaen with his Quartet for the End of Time, yet it was in fact the fanciful character of Robert Schumann’s Märchenerzählungen (fairy tale narrations) for clarinet, viola and piano that most inspired Watkins:

‘When I started composing my new piece, I had Schumann’s Märchenerzählungen (for clarinet, viola and piano) in the back of my mind. Schumann was interested in the “picturesque and the fanciful” but left no link to specific fairy tales. This was a similar starting point for me, when writing these four varied fables.’ -Huw Watkins

 Following the premiere, Robert Plane and the Gould Piano Trio will tour Four Fables throughout the UK, including performances at Corbridge Chamber Music Festival on 5 August, Church Stretton Festival on 6 August and Swansea International Festival on 30 September, with further performances planned for 2019.

• Huw Watkins - profile


• Four Fables - work details


• Three Choirs Festival Hereford

 

©photo: Benjamin Ealovega