A tireless innovator: Carl Maria von Weber was defined by curiosity, musical expressiveness and an insatiable artistic energy. Soprano Regula Mühlemann, baritone Äneas Humm, composer Jörg Widmann, film composer Rachel Portman and others discuss an artist whose influence extends far beyond the famous Freischütz. Carl Maria von Weber saw the orchestra as a narrative force; he experimented boldly and opened up new musical horizons, the influence of which extends into the modern era and film music. At the same time, his life was marked by upheavals, shaped by illness, financial strain, tireless work and the search for his own artistic language beyond established traditions. “The Free Spirit – Carl Maria von Weber” takes us into the world of a composer who, until his untimely death at the age of 39, worked tirelessly to renew the sound of his time and to give music its own language of expression, thereby opening up a new way of listening for his audience.
Opening Concert of the Pierre Boulez Concert Hall
A stellar lineup of artists, headed by Daniel Barenboim, comes together for the opening concert of the Pierre Boulez Saal, the new architectural highlight of the Barenboim-Said
Akademie in Berlin – “a masterpiece of its kind” (The New Yorker). Anna Prohaska and Jörg Widmann join Daniel Barenboim, “who plays with the sureness of a sleepwalker”
(Süddeutsche Zeitung), for Schubert’s lyrical scene Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, while the latter also partners with the Boulez Ensemble’s strings in Mozart’s Piano Quartet. Karim Said
and Michael Barenboim take on Berg’s Chamber Concerto, and Widmann performs his own Fantasy for Solo Clarinet. The programme is bookended by Boulez’ fanfare-like Initiale
and sur Incises, for three pianos, three harps, and three percussionists. “Absolutely beautiful!” (FAZ)
Quatuor pour la fin du temps
With Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Jörg Widmann, four outstanding soloists dedicated themselves to Olivier Messiaen’s “Quatuor pour la fin du temps”, a unique work of music history, and performed it together at the “Meetingpoint Music Messiaen” that was built on the site of the former prisoner of war camp just outside of German-Polish town Görlitz/Zgorzelec, exactly where the camp’s so-called “theater barrack” once stood. It was there that Messiaen composed the quartet and on January 15, 1941 performed it for the first time in front of fellow prisoners.