World Première: Flûte en suite by Jörg Widmann in Cleveland, OH

Jörg Widmann
Flûte en suite
for flute and  orchesta groups (2011)
Commissioned by The Cleveland Orchestra through the Young Composers Fund, endowed by Jan R. and Daniel R. Lewis
21’

I Allemande - II Sarabande - III Choral I - IV Courante - V Choral II - VI Venezianisches Gondellied (Barcarole) - VII Cadenza - VIII Badinerie

• 26 May 2011 · Cleveland, OH (USA)
Severance Hall
Joshua Smith, flute
The Cleveland Orchestra
Conductor Franz Welser-Möst

Further Performances: 27-28 May Cleveland, OH (USA)

This 'Suite' is not one of my 'epic' instrumental concertos such as those for cello, violin or oboe, but a substantially smaller-structured series of dance forms arranged into a suite. Sunken worlds suddenly emerge here, only to reach the surface, hover in dangerously distorted fashion and then sink back to the bottom. Every individual movement allots the solo flute an instrumental group from the orchestra: in the opening Allemande, the flutes of the orchestra; the string section in the Sarabande; in both chorales the brass etc.; and it is only in the concluding Badinerie that all orchestral groups are combined, although they are terraced in the Baroque style, one following another, seldom all playing simultaneously.

This first performance marks the conclusion of my two-year residence with the Cleveland Orchestra. The immense versatility of this fine body of sound and the exciting dark timbre of its principal flautist Joshua Smith have to a great extent determined the form and tonal character of my Flûte en suite.

Jörg Widmann

• Details on the performance