Double Bliss met Jörg Widmann

Double Bliss with Jörg Widmann places the renowned German clarinetist and composer at the center of an evening of chamber music. The concert originated from an initiative by musicians of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, who wanted to present Widmann up close in the intimacy of chamber music—both as performer and composer.

The program pairs Widmann’s energetic Jagdquartett with Carl Maria von Weber’s sparkling Clarinet Quintet in B-flat major. Widmann has a close artistic relationship with the Ruysdael Quartet, which includes Radio Philharmonic Orchestra musicians Joris van Rijn and Michael Müller. Widmann even wrote a string quartet especially for this ensemble, making this collaboration particularly meaningful.

After the intermission, Widmann takes the stage as a soloist in his Fantasie for Solo Clarinet, a work he considers his first true composition for his own instrument. This is followed by his Octet (2004), a piece with a rich and expansive sound world. Widmann deliberately chose the same instrumentation as Schubert’s famous Octet, using that tradition as a starting point for a very personal musical statement.

The program concludes with 180 beats per minute, a dynamic work for string sextet driven by tight, pulsating rhythms.

The evening was curated by violinists Joris van Rijn and Masha Iakovleva, with a shared vision: a chamber music program shaped by Radio Philharmonic Orchestra musicians, highlighting Jörg Widmann as soloist, composer and chamber musician.