Forwad-Festival: Schumannliebe 4

When he was a young clarinet student, Jörg Widmann fell under the spell of Robert Schumann’s music. That love has lasted to this day and is more intense than ever — something attested by titles such as Humoreske, Kreisleriana, and, of course, Schumannliebe, but above all by his countless musical references. What is it that so fascinates Widmann about Schumann, about the music and the man? In a musical lecture, he speaks about his veneration of the Romantic composer while at the same time demonstrating it at the piano. The focus is on Schumann’s “Ver-Rückungen”: the harmonic and rhythmic shifts so characteristic of this composer, his many musical innovations, but also his tragic end in the psychiatric hospital at Bonn-Endenich. The event concludes with Widmann’s Fieberphantasie, which draws on Schumann’s distinctive melodic writing — something Widmann likens to a fever chart: “nervous, flickering, feverish, an infinite number of small and large wave crests and troughs within the principal line.”

Performers:
Jörg Widmann, lecture at the piano
Soloists of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO)

Program:
“Ver-Rückungen” (“Dislocations”)
Reflections on the music of Schumann (in German), with musical examples at the piano

Jörg Widmann (*1973)
Fieberphantasie (“Fever Fantasy”) for piano, string quartet, and clarinet

Tickets as from 4.8. | 10:00 am (CET)