Sat, 21.11.2026
Forward Festival: Schumannliebe 4

Even as a young clarinet student, Jörg Widmann fell under the spell of Robert Schumann's music. This love endures to this day and is more intense than ever—as evidenced by titles such as Humoresque, Kreisleriana, or indeed Schumann Love, but above all by countless musical references. What fascinates Widmann so much about Schumann, about the music and the man? In a musical lecture, he speaks about his veneration of the Romantic composer and also demonstrates it at the piano. The focus is on Schumann's "dislocations": the harmonic and rhythmic shifts so characteristic of him, his many musical innovations, but also his tragic end in the Bonn-Endenich psychiatric hospital. Widmann's Fever Fantasy concludes this lecture-concert. It draws on Schumann's distinctive melodic style, which reminds Widmann of the fluctuations of a fever curve: "nervous, flickering, feverish, countless smaller and larger peaks and troughs within the overall musical line."

Performers:
Jörg Widmann, lecture at the piano
; soloists of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO)

Program:
«Dis-Displacements»
Thoughts on the music of Robert Schumann with sound examples at the piano;

Jörg Widmann (*1973)
Fever Fantasy for piano, string quartet and clarinet

Tickets available from August 4th | 10:00 AM (CET)