This portrait of Jörg Widmann holds two works from longer cycles, each setting soloists against groups drawn from the orchestra. Polyphone Schatten (2001) belongs to the Lichtstudie cycle, Drittes Labyrinth (2013/14), as its title says, is the third of his labyrinths. Both are heard in the recordings of their first performances, with the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, and both are first recordings on disc.
Widmann, born in 1973, is a composer, conductor and clarinettist, and here he also plays. Polyphone Schatten, a WDR commission, was premiered at the Cologne Philharmonie on 12 January 2002 by the violist Christophe Desjardins and Widmann on clarinet, with the orchestra under Heinz Holliger. Drittes Labyrinth followed in the same hall on 10 January 2014, with the soprano Sarah Wegener and Emilio Pomàrico conducting. It was commissioned by WDR, VARA in Amsterdam and the Casa da Música in Porto. The recordings are productions of Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln, licensed by WDR mediagroup.
Polyphone Schatten, subtitled Lichtstudie II, lasts about thirteen minutes. Schott calls it a synaesthetic attempt to bring the musical idea of polyphony together with natural laws. The colours of viola and clarinet are contrasted and merged with noise-like, atmospheric sounds from the orchestral groups: four flutes, four clarinets, four horns, brass, ten violas, eight cellos and six double basses, without violins. Drittes Labyrinth, at over 46 minutes, is the larger work. The soprano wanders through the concert hall in a strange, split dialogue, with the instrumental groups and with an imaginary partner.
The texts of Drittes Labyrinth come from Friedrich Nietzsche's Dionysos-Dithyramben, as noted by Derek Ho in ResMusica after the Dutch premiere at the Concertgebouw in September 2014, again with Wegener and Pomàrico. He described a threatening opening chord in the strings and a long improvisatory section on F sharp before the voice enters, and an ending in darkness. He found that Wegener sang the "treacherous and angular solo part" with confidence and distinction. On disc the work is divided into nine sections, marked by bar numbers.
CD, Wergo WER 7369 2, released in 2018, a production of Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln.
