Jörg Widmann
Composer
Jörg Widmann is that rarest of things in the 21st century – a strikingly original composer who is also a virtuoso performer. Born in Munich and studying with giants among modern German composers – Wolfgang Rihm and Hans Werner Henze – Widmann made his name, at first, as a startlingly brilliant virtuoso clarinettist. Meanwhile, in the 1990s, he began to emerge as a composer with a very personal relationship with tradition. The names of his compositions were significant: orchestral pieces called Chor (2004), Lied (2003) and Antiphon (2008) and chamber pieces with titles like Hunting Quartet (2003) that echoed Mozart while at the same time – like the artworks of Widmann's hero Anselm Kiefer – hinting that for a German artist, history can never feel like an entirely comfortable fit.
That doesn't mean that Widmann can't enjoy his heritage: the exuberant Beethoven-inspired concert overture Con brio (2008) has become one of the most-played orchestral compositions of the 21st century. But in the massive, teeming opera Babylon (2012) and the oratorio ARCHE (2016) Widmann has opened his cultural critique onto an even wider canvas. And whether as composer, soloist, conductor (since 2022 with the Munich Chamber Orchestra) or teacher (at Berlin's Barenboim-Said Akademie) it looks likely that he will have a lot more to say.
