Tagged with 'Sir Simon Rattle'

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.

Internationally, Jörg Widmann has achieved great success as a clarinetist, composer and increasingly as a conductor. On 27 May, the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle will premiere Widmann’s new work Tanz auf dem Vulkan (Dance on the Volcano), which was commissioned by the orchestra as part of their “tapas” concert series, and dedicated to Sir Simon who will leave his post as the orchestra’s principal conductor this year.

Although the work is written for Sir Simon, it begins without a conductor. Instead, the percussionist counts the orchestra in with drumsticks, and the conductor walks on stage to join in over the course of the first eleven bars.

Jörg Widmann – Tanz auf dem Vulkan: Love for all music, past and present

For Widmann, established tradition and contemporary exploration in music are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, Widmann openly refers to past musical conventions in his works, yet creates something completely new in his examination on the past.

“Over the past few years, I have been closely involved with the Berlin Philharmonic in an intense musical partnership and was therefore only too pleased to fulfill their request to compose a short farewell piece for Sir Simon. My composition has evolved into an insistently explosive work. The job description for a chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic is these four words, in my opinion very aptly described: Dance on the volcano.”
– Jörg Widmann

The Berlin Philharmonic will perform Tanz auf dem Vulkan at the Royal Festival Hall in London on 31 May, at the Musikverein Wien in 2 June and at the Philharmonie Köln on 6 June. The Spanish premiere will follow at the Auditorio Nacional de Música on 7 June in Madrid.

• Jörg Widmann – profil


• Tanz auf dem Vulkan – work details


• Berlin Philharmonic

The Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle will give two national premieres of Julian Anderson's new orchestral work Incantesimi this week at the Lucerne Festival on Wednesday 31 August and at the BBC Proms on Saturday 3 September.



Written with this orchestra's particular colour in mind, Incantesimi is an 8-minute glittering exploration of orbiting musical ideas. Following its world premiere in Berlin in June, the Berlin Philharmonic have taken the piece on tour to Rotterdam, Lucerne, and culminating with the UK premiere at the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Incantesimi (meaning ‘spells’ or ‘enchantments’ in Italian) is based on five musical ideas which circle around each other, sometimes accompanying in the background, sometimes rising to the foreground. The work is characterised by a recurring Cor Anglais solo, a long arching string figure, low chords, and bell chords in the middle and high registers. The piece unfolds slowly in what the composer describes as an “almost hypnotic state”, which lends the work its title. Toward the end of the work, the tempo dramatically shifts, bringing about an eruption of sound. This subsides and the music continues its orbit to close the piece.

When Sir Simon Rattle asked me to compose a work for the Berlin Philharmonic, I decided to write a piece which focused upon line and timbre unfolding at a slow rate. I have always admired the ability of Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic to play long, flowing musical lines with exceptional beauty of tone. – Julian Anderson

A co-commission between the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation, the Royal Philharmonic Society and Boston Symphony Orchestra, Incantesimi will be given its US premiere by the BSO on 26 January 2017 followed by performances on 27 and 28 January at Symphony Hall, Boston, Massachusetts.

• Julian Anderson - profile


• Incantesimi - workdetails