Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Widmann

A carefully chosen programme of exciting, short pieces which all share parallel energetic explorations of musical patterns and pulses.

As this season's Composer-in-Residence, Jörg Widmann premieres his Horn Concerto at Berlin's Philharmonie, with dedicatee Stephan Dohr as soloist and Sir Simon Rattle conducting. 

A varied programme of chamber music charms the Berlin Phil, featuring works by Widmann and a premiere by young talent Tsotne Zedginidze.

Håkan Hardenberger is a phenomenon of the trumpet, but long stretches of Widmann'sTowards Paradise fail to impress, as does a rather tame Mahler 5 from Daniel Harding and the LSO.

Widmann brings his composing personality to conducting Mozart, and uses the glass harmonica to create a sound that's as eerie as it's unforgettable.

Jörg Widmann helms an exhilarating CBSO concert in Birmingham, making Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony sound brand new. 

Beethoven was the spiritus rector of Ticciati's COE concert at the Elbphilharmonie, with Lisa Batiashvili in commanding form for that composer's fiddle concerto.

Daniel Harding and Antoine Tamestit impress in their Cleveland Orchestra debuts, tackling the complexities of a Widmann concerto and a Strauss tone poem.

Widmann’s maze keeps the listener off balance, constantly surprising and tricking the ears as a labyrinth constantly surprises and tricks the eyes.

The clarinetist/composer fulfills a dream and takes a talented quartet on a rambunctious romp through Mozart, Haydn and his own music.

Jörg Widmann proved again to be a true musical polymath,  one of the very few active today.

In Rautavaara's orchestrations of Sibelius songs, Gerald Finley enveloped every line in refined, sinuous curves, accentuating the music’s rhapsodic quality.

After four evenings and ten world premieres, Pierre Boulez Saal's A Festival of New Music comes to a haunting end.

In his first New York Philharmonic engagement since 2000, Franz Welser-Möst pairs Jörg Widmann's Babylon Suite with Strauss' Sinfonia domestica. 

In an expertly considered programme, the Berlin-based ensemble brought together classical revolutionaries with modern homage to shine fascinating light on the form.

In fragments and miniatures, the ensemble pieces were most satisfying, allowing Widmann not to build arguments but define subjects by contrast, showing a quick wit and a flair for suspense. 

Soprano Claron McFadden's pellucid voice tremendously contributed to the structural and sonic richness of Widmann's Versuch über die Fuge.

Valery Gergiev and the Munich Philharmonic deliver a dark, satisfying rendition of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. 

In Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, the dialogue between instruments, underlined by changes in moods and textures, had an operatic quality.

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

Widmann, Mendelssohn and Beethoven draw a full house to the Ulster Hall. Rafael Payare leads the Ulster Orchestra confidently, but Veronika Eberle steals the show.

A showcase of Jörg Widmann’s talents as composer, conductor and clarinettist in works by Mozart, Weber and himself

Jörg Widmann's wicked sense of humour starts proceedings before the clearest of Brahms readings, underpinned by extraordinary orchestral precision.

The US première of Jörg Widmann's Partita featured alongside Mozart and Strauss in Andris Nelsons' carefully chosen program.

The gifted Norwegian pianist brought a programme of varied and demanding works to the fourth recital of Lucerne’s renowned Piano Festival.

The violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja's endless curiosity was on display at a recital of duos with cellist Jay Campbell at the Park Avenue Armory. 

On a warm summer's evening in Mozart's home city, Japanese master pianist Dame Mitsuko Uchida delivered a delicately crafted solo recital.

Britten and Shostakovich were great friends, so it was appropriate that both composers were represented in the Belcea Quartet's two recitals on the opening weekend of the 70th Aldeburgh Festival. 

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.

It seemed at times that Dame Mitsuko Uchida and clarinetist Jörg Widmann have been collaborating for decades.

A startling new work from Jörg Widmann follows disciplined Beethoven at the Philharmonie. 

Yefim Bronfman was the astonishing piano soloist for the Cleveland premiere of of Jörg Widmann's Trauermarsch. Franz Welser-Möst then led a transporting performance of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony.

Mitsuko Uchida’s love of Mozart and Schumann was given vivid expression in the first of a series of recitals in Britain and Germany – but it was Mozart that won the evening here. 

In a time when death and mourning lack any public or communal aspect, where the funeral procession has ceased to exist save for royalty and the occasional head of state, what relevance does the traditional dirge have?

Martha Argerich shows her star quality in an extraordinary, intimate rendering of Liszt's First Piano Concerto; the West-Eastern Divan orchestra make a big political statement in performing Wagner.

The beginning of Prom 23 was utterly surreal. I found myself confronted by sounds I had never heard before in a concert hall.

Jörg Widmann wore two hats in the last concert of the Zurich Tonhalle’s season, both playing solo clarinet and conducting a performance of one of his own thought-provoking works.

The SFS presents the US première of Widmann’s work alongside an impressive renditions of CPE Bach and Brahms.

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.

Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony and Hindemith’s Konzertmusik round out a very satisfying concert.

Although deprived of hearing Ravel's Shéhérazade, there was much else to enjoy in the Berlin Philharmonic's performances of Wagner, Widmann and Sibelius.

His recent bow out of the Vienna Staatsoper has been in the news, but last evening
Maestro Franz Welser-Möst was firmly in the saddle of the distinguished
Cleveland Orchestra as they performed in Amsterdam.

Of the ten or so orchestras I’ve listened to during this year’s Proms, the Cleveland Orchestra’s sound was perhaps the most polished, sophisticated (especially the silky strings) and disciplined of all. 

Franz Welser-Möst conducts the Cleveland Orchestra in brilliantly clear Brahms at the Royal Albert Hall. 

If this first song recital of the season is any indication of the level we can expect at the Konzerthaus, lovers of Lieder are in for a real treat. Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber set the bar very high last night in a hefty program including Schumann’s Dichterliebe and a dozen other songs, a set of Fauré, and the world première of a song cycle by Jörg Widmann.

Simone Young and the Dresdner Philharmonie make a formidable partnership. The orchestra play with such a wonderful sound, especially in the wind and brass sections, and the range of colours they conjure is incredible. And Young clearly revels in the orchestra’s technical facility, but still always bringing something extra, and never taking away from what the orchestra can do for themselves.

It’s easiest to describe Christian Tetzlaff’s approach to playing the violin by what he isn’t trying to do. He is not trying to play as beautifully as possible, in the conventional sense. He is not trying to sound like a nightingale, soaring long, honeyed lines above an accompaniment.

Severance Hall was packed this weekend for a rare appearance by violinist Joshua Bell with the Cleveland Orchestra and music director Franz Welser-Möst conducting. There should have been no disappointment; the concert was brilliantly executed from beginning to end. This review is based on the performance of Saturday, 19 January.Jörg Widmann’s Lied (2003, revised 2009) opened the concert.