Jörg Widmann (durée : 5'18''21)

extraits de "Frei Stücke 1 & 4 " interprétés par l'Ensemble Modern, Ltg. sous la direction de Dominique My -
Enregistrement : WERGO 2003 (WER 6555 2) - Deutscher Musikrat gGmbH - Editeur de partition : © SCHOTT MUSIC, Mainz - Allemagne

" For me , it all began with the instrument. I started with the clarinet at the age of seven. I just played short pieces but most of the time, I improvised. so I wanted to preserve these improvisations. I was sad about not being able to remember what I had played the day before. For many years, this has been the only reason for writing down music on paper. Writing it down certainly turns it into something totally different. But the real origin for me is improvisation. To me, sound is a living creature, whatever it may be, it has a head, a body and legs. This means, that I sometimes treat sound like a raw egg or a precious stone. It is something dear to me. The crucial question is, of course, the concept of time. In my understanding, this is critical, because music, more than any other discipline, is about time. A sound develops over time. I often compose at night, simply because during the day I perform music and I give lessons. My tools are extremely old-fashioned, they have always been the same. I just use a pencil, paper, a rubber and a pencil sharpener. I think, whatever the size of the table, it would always be cluttered up, and would be complete chaos. But this is already like composition. Composing is about bringing order to chaos, but to turning chaos back to order is also composing. In some way, composing is always a moment of crisis, like the start of an illness, or the emergence of something beautiful, almost like childbirth. But until you get there, there is an unpleasant period of purgatory. And then, I felt a special feeling in this musical landscape; the feeling of being free... and I really wanted to express this feeling. I remember having written this piece in one afternoon, but sometimes it can take a long time to be able to write such a piece in one afternoon. You can feel the obsession and the tension when listening to it. Looking at the score of the fourth piece, you understand quite well what it is all about : there are two lines of music, one for two flutes and the second for two clarinets which are thought to be complementary. In a drawing, it would look like waves, an exact split between winds and strings. With the stringed instruments something very percussive happens, as they all play saltandi and col legno. In the first three movements of « Freie Stück », the music is so slow and it lasts so long, that it is hard to bear, you feel, it must explode at some point. And then comes the fourth movement. It is like holding your breath to the very limit... and suddenly you let go."

PRODUCTION : PANDORE/LGM - REALISATION : Yan PROEFROCK (PANDORE) - POSTPRODUCTION : PANDORE - DIFFUSION : MEZZO