Obra: Babylon

Widmann packs everything into Babylon – from classical arias to dissonant clusters, military marches, film music and a few chamber music moments.

The loud cheers for the performers were richly deserved, although Jörg Widmann’s imposing but sprawling Babylon was not well-served by the concert format.

As I had both hoped and expected, Widmann's Babylon Suite had an undercurrent of knowing wickedness and a sense of self-awareness that one would find in a Stravinsky ballet score.