[Monthly Sportlight 7]
JÖRG WIDMANN’s Fantasie for Solo Clarinet
Yoonah Kim clarinet
[PROGRAM NOTE]
"'Fantasie' for solo clarinet is my first real piece for my own instrument, the clarinet. With its eccentric virtuosity and its cheerful, ironic fundamental character, it reflects the experience with Stravinsky's 3 Pieces for solo clarinet of 1919 and the tonal innovations which did not appear in music before Carl Maria von Weber's notation for the clarinet, and takes them further in a new way. It is a little imaginary scene uniting the dialogues of different people in close proximity in the spirit of the commedia dell'arte." "It would be important to take the title completely literally – which is why the performer should of course play the piece with imagination. The most important information on the structure: the complete absence of bar lines – whenever the piece is played to me by students or other persons, I am always pleased about the player's own ideas and about the fact that the musical text is taken literally and seriously, with all its dynamic and articulation marks, and yet filled with life and imagination. What I always notice, however, is that the rhythmic fast pulse part is often played like an étude, rather than with imagination. What is most important to me, personally, is to take pleasure in making tonal distinctions, even despite the strict timing. Use your imagination and enjoy playing my 'Fantasie'!"
- Jörg Widmann