presents:
Wittgenstein Project part 2
Chamber music for piano lefthanded, clarinet and string trio
Michiel Weidner, together with his Prisma String Trio, Folke Nauta and Lars Wouters van den Oudenweijer, continue their search for the musical legacy of Paul Wittgenstein.
The tragic story of pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in the First World War, was the direct reason for many composers to start writing new music for him. Wittgenstein's old mentor Josef Labor took the lead with no fewer than 11 works. The utterly romantic Trio for clarinet, viola and piano left hand dates from 1919 and was only premiered in 1932. to immediately fall into oblivion. Folke Nauta rediscovered it in Austrian archives, so tonight we can experience a first performance in more than 88 years!
For Erich Wolfgang Korngold, composing for Wittgenstein presented a delightful challenge: How could he penetrate the regressive historicist filter provided by Paul Wittgenstein’s personality, without sacrificing his own compositional voice. The musical answer came in the form of the Suite Op. 23, which offers a nostalgic and sometimes ironic retrospective of Vienna's musical past. We will hear two movements of the Suite tonight.
Folke Nauta, piano left hand
Lars Wouters van den Oudenweijer, clarinet
Prisma String Trio:
Janneke van Prooijen, violin
Elisabeth Smalt, viola
Michiel Weidner, cello
http://www.wittgensteinproject.com