Jörg Widmann conducts Beethoven and himself

On the way to Beethoven

Jörg Widmann is currently one of the most frequently performed living composers in the world. This is partly due to the success of his concert overture Con brio . The Austrian wrote the work "in great haste" in 2008 for the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra as an introduction to a Beethoven program. Widmann doesn't actually quote Beethoven, but based his work on the characteristics of his Seventh and Eighth Symphonies .

Oblivion

Beethoven's Seventh Symphony , admiringly called the "apotheosis of the dance" by Richard Wagner, is accompanied by Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Symphonic Serenade . He wrote the virtuoso work for string orchestra in 1947, in the twilight of his career. Returning from the United States, he was considered an anachronism in postwar Austria. His Symphonic Serenade , which rivals Beethoven's Seventh Symphony in its rhythmic finesse, threatened to fade into oblivion. Wrongly so, as it turns out.