Minguet Quartett . Jörg Widmann

The Minguet Quartett and composer and clarinettist Jörg Widmann (b. 1973) bring Mozart's exceptionally beautiful clarinet quintet face to face with a contemporary work by Wolfgang Rihm (b. 1952), 'Vier Studien…', which he wrote specially for this quartet, and a work by Jörg Widmann himself. 1789 was a trying year for Mozart, but this did not stop him from writing some magnificent works, including his Clarinet Quintet in A. Incidentally, Mozart was the first composer to write a clarinet quintet. He created it for his fellow lodge member and close friend, the clarinettist Anton Stadler. Just like his clarinet concerto and the 'Kegelstatt-Trio' for clarinet, viola, and piano, it was a masterpiece. The clarinet concerto, the clarinet quintet, and the 'Kegelstatt-Trio' are three compositions that have remained unequalled in their genre to this day. That may well explain why such an accomplished and internationally applauded composer as Wolfgang Rihm calls his clarinet quintet 'Vier Studien zu einem Klarinettenquintett'. Jörg Widmann, a pupil of Hans Werner Henze, Wilfried Hiller and Wolfgang Rihm, assimilates the musical developments of the last fifty years into his work, inventing new and personal forms with broad emotional gestures. Widmann wrote his Third String Quartet, called the 'Jagdquartet',in 2003 and dedicated it to the Arditti Quartet. He described it as a 'furious scherzo'. The quartet is based on a punctuated hunting theme borrowed from Robert Schumann's 'Papillons opus 2'.