Jörg Widmann

Sergei Nakariakov

In January 2006, Jörg Widmann’s Ad Absurdum was premièred by Sergei Nakariakov and the Munich Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Christoph Poppen, in Essen, Germany. This highly virtuosic fifteen-minute piece was written especially for Nakariakov. The chamber orchestra consists of string players, two flutes, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet, contrabassoon and an unbelievable quantity of percussion, to be performed by only one player.

“When does virtuosity become noise?” That is the question that Jörg Widmann asked himself when he wrote Ad Absurdum for Sergei Nakariakov. Widmann pushes the virtuosity of Nakariakov to the very limits of playability, but because of this, there is no development possible any more in the music. The newspapers reported after the concert: “Maybe trumpet-player Sergei Nakariakov is no normal human being” and “Sergei Nakariakov has to be a fish, who breathes through gills”.

Jörg Widmann (1973) is a German composer and clarinet player. He studied in Munich, Karlsruhe and at the Juilliard. His composition teachers were Kay Westermann, Hans Werner Henze, Wilfried Hiller, Heiner Goebbels and Wolfgang Rihm. Since 2001 he has been professor of clarinet at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg.

Links:
Jörg Widmann - German Wikipedia article
Ad Absurdum at Schott music publishers (mostly in German)
Sergei Nakariakov home page - to hear 2½ mins. of Ad Absurdum, choose fifth note under "Music Samples" heading.