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G6 The Boston Globe FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2015 Art Performance jOrg widmann composer residency At: Yellow Barn, Putney, Aug. 3-8 Tickets: 802-387-6637, www.yellowbarn.org CLASSICAL NOTES DAVID WEININGER Time after time Composer Jorg Widmann embraces dialogue of past, present As a teenager, Jorg Widmann hung pictures of two musical heroes on the wall of his Munich bedroom: Pierre Boulez and Miles Davis. They make an odd couple at first glance, the allegedly dogmatic serialist and ruler of the French music scene and the famously protean jazz titan who evolved by shedding styles as quickly as he adopted them. But to Widmann, who took up the clarinet when he was 7 and began composing not long after, there was no contradiction. "I was fascinated equally by them," he said during a recent conversation from his home in Freiburg.

In Boulez, who would later become an important mentor, he heard not determinism but "the opposite what I heard was orgasms of color and freedom of sound." Listening to Davis and his band playing at Munich's Philharmonie in the 1980s, Widmann said, "the incredible thing was what he did not play. The notes he did not play were so amazing." Widmann's unique way of resolving seeming contradictions into something new and unexpected is more than a (very German) facet of his personality: It is perhaps the most important characteristic of his work. Widmann's music is incontestably of this moment, music that could only be written now, and yet no other composer is so deeply engaged in a dialogue with the past, a tradition which the composer, who is the subject of an upcoming residency at the Yellow Barn music school and festival in Putney, is both a part of, and stands apart from. He reached this point not solely through his own creations but, as importantly, through his career as a clarinetist and his constant engagement with the masterpieces of the repertoire. Earlier this month he played Mozart's Clarinet Quintet with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

"That's another piece where, how can I close my doors and say, OK, now it's time to write something completely different? But of course, it's my obligation to do something different. "I'm very interested in a dialogue," he went on, "but not in a nostalgic way, looking back and saying, well, it was so nice in the past. A dialogue is not always only agreeing with each other. Sometimes it's a questioning of the other one." Take Widmann's "Hunt Quartet," his third string quartet, whose title is a clear reference to a Mozart work of the same name. The piece opens in a healthy A major, with clear references to a famous rhythm from Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.

Quickly, though, easy guideposts fall away, harmonies darken, and the music is eventually consumed by noise generated entirely by extended string techniques. The cel score: Widmann conceived of it, he said, after realizing that after concerts, "each time, as the rest of us enjoy a beer or a glass of wine at the bar, the poor percussionist still has to take apart their percussion instruments. And it takes two hours! "So I wanted to write a piece about that moment," he continued, as the percussionist grows increasingly frustrated and begins to create "these sounds which you would never use in a regular piece." Widmann paused, then added, thoughtfully, "I don't even know if it is a piece." Still, he seemed delighted to have the chance to work through it with Ed-uardo Leandro, Yellow Barn's percussionist. "Maybe there will be a score at the end. I'm very curious about it myself." What the diversity of the programs also makes clear is how varied Widmann's output is.

He is unafraid to radically change direction from work to work. Indeed, he seems driven simultaneously to use whatever materials suit his expressive purpose tonal, atonal, lyrical, or noisy and to avoid repeating himself. It is both freedom and obligation, a productive ambivalence that Davis, in particular, would have appreciated. "I don't like the idea of doing the same thing all your life, and then somebody calls it he said with a laugh. "I have great respect there are many people who work like that and really have a language you hear three notes and then, Well of course, that's this and this composer' But even when I write a piece and I start the next one, many times it is just the opposite.

"I have two tables, and sometimes I write two contrasting pieces at the same time. When I wrote my orchestra piece it's a very tonal piece, a Schubert homage, on the other table there was a kind of piano-destruction piece, which is 40 minutes long. The pedal is put down all the time, and until the first normal note is played it's 15 minutes until then it's wood sounds, metal sounds, piano-lid banging. Everything is in reverberation and echo. "And to me it's not a contradiction," Widmann continued.

"I just try not to repeat myself." MARCO BORGGREVE laughing often and almost overflowing with enthusiasm about all things musical, as if the passion that ignited him early on has never worn off. He is particularly pleased by the diversity of Yellow Barn programs curated by artistic director Seth Knopp since their deft mix of old and new appeals naturally to his own artistic inclination. He also appreciates the fact that, along with well-known pieces like the "Hunt," Knopp insisted on including some of Widmann's more obscure works. None, probably, is more obscure than "Skelett," a 2004 solo-percussion piece that mischievously upends the idea of a virtuoso solo display. In fact, it doesn't even have a written list becomes, at least metaphorically, the victim of the "hunt." A tradition is not erased so much as brought to its extreme conclusion.

One might think the composer of such stuff as the quartet and the recent opera "Babylon" would be an imposing, thorny person. But Widmann, 42, is a warm and generous conversant, David Weininger can be reached at globeclassicalnotes gmail. com. Follow him on Twitter damdgweininger. ooooooooooooooooooooooooo ja-o ooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooo coo ooooooooooooooooooooooooo STAGES TERRY BYRNE iiHI MUSIC THE MUSICAL MASTERPIECE MY FAIR LADY The unforgettable story of Eliza Doolittle, the Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from Professor Henry Higgins so that she can pass as a proper lady.

Set against the gorgeous scenery and costumes of Edwardian England. Buy your tickets today! CapePlayhouse.com Posthumously, Lipsky is now a published playwright INTENTIONALLY DIFFERENT ENTIRELY ARTSEMERSON Our 201516 Season is here! Experience diverse cultures and multiple languages. We'll crack open classics, travel to new lands, battle space aliens and celebrate being entirely different. Single tix now on sale! 617.824.8400 artsemerson.org AUGUST 11 -AUGUST 23 TWO WEEKS ONLY YOU SHOULD BE DANCING! Don't miss the Regional Theatre Premiere of the stage adaptation of the 70s classic film. SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER is the story of a talented, streetwise Brooklyn kid attempting to escape a dead-end life through dancing.

The score to includes many disco-era hits by the Bee Gees and others. ONLY TWO HOURS FROM BOSTON! Discover where master artists and new musical leaders live, learn, and explore great chamber music together in the foothills of Vermont. Saturdays and Sundays Now through August 16th Programs Tickets Call 802-254-2394 Visit www.marlboromusic.org NORTH SHORE MUSIC THEATRE 62 Dunham Rd I Beverly I MA FOR TICKETS: 978.232.7200 or NSMT.0RG SUMPTUOUS MUSICAL -TICKETS NOW ON SALE! Stephen Sondheim's exquisite celebration of love is the must-see event of the season! Starts Sept 1 1 Buy now for the best prices! A Huntington Theatre Company production Avenue of the Arts BU Theatre 617 266 0800 huntingtontheatre.org BOSTON MIDSUMMER OPERA PRESENTS Flotow's MARTHA You know and love the music Come see why it's such a favorite! James 0'Leary, Stage Director Susan Davenny Wyner, Conductor with Jason Budd, Eric Barry, Joanna Mongiardo, Stephanie Kacoyanis, and David Cushing Tsai Performance Center, Boston University 685 Commonwealth Boston July 29 31 at 7:30 p.m., August 2 at 3 p.m. Tickets: $40, $50, $60 www.bostonmidsummeropera.org AUGUST 6 -16 781-891-5600 Leonard Bernstein's Rhythmic and Soaring Tony Award-Winning Musical Comedy Based on the Play 'My Sister, Eileen' Starring Katie Ann Clark and Jennifer Ellis ReagleMusicTheatre.com 617 Lexington Waltham FREE PARKING GREAT MUSIC FOR FREE WEDNESDAYS AT 7PM DCR's HATCH SHELL ON THE ESPLANADE JULY 29 L0NGW00D SYMPHONY Ronald Feldman, conducts ballet music AUG 5 ITALIAN NIGHT Golden Age of Italian opera AUG 12 SHEHERAZADE MEETS CLARICE ASSAD AUG 19 DRUMS ALONG THE CHARLES AUG 26 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM landmarksorchestra.org Jon Lipsky was a prolific Boston playwright who wrote more than 14 full-length and dozens of short plays. Lipsky, who died in 2011, also contributed to the development of hundreds of other plays as a teacher, director, and mentor at Boston University, where he taught for nearly 30 years.

But his plays have never been published, making it difficult for other the-ater companies to produce them. Until now. "He was never much of an advocate for his own work," says his son Jonah Lipsky, "so after he died, one of his former students, Bill Barclay, and I took on this project of collecting and publishing the best of his work." Publication of the two-volume collection "The Plays of Jon Lipsky" (Smith Kraus) will be celebrated Sunday at a party at the Martha's Vineyard Playhouse, where Lipsky was an associate artistic director for many years. A Boston-area event will be held Aug. 12 at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, where members of Actors' Shakespeare Project will read from the plays.

The collection contains eight of Lipsky's full-length plays, including the one of which Jonah says his father was most proud, "Living in Exile," which took as its inspiration Homer's "The Iliad," but reduced the epic tale's cast of thousands to just a handful of characters. "My dad liked to start with true events," says Jonah, who manages the Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Lab at Brown University. "But the emotions were the most important. He took stories that captivated him, used that as source material, did a lot of research around the period and the people, and then took off from there." Also included in the collection are "Maggie's Riff," based on Jack Kerouac's autobiographical novel, "Maggie "Beginner's Luck," a retelling of the biblical story of Saul and David; and "Coming Up for Air," the autobiographical story of Boston saxophonist Stan Strickland, which earned Lipsky an Elliot Norton Award. "I think what he enjoyed most was the creative development of new work, the opportunity to collaborate with other artists and come up with something that was completely unique," says Jonah.

He and Barclay approached many of Lipsky's collaborators to provide introductions and context for each play. Continued on next page A NEW MUSICAL STARTS 8215 Poignant uplifting, with music by Sara Bareilles, WAITRESS celebrates friendship, motherhood, the courage to take an abandoned dream off the shelf. Starring Tony-winner Jessie Mueller. TICKETS FROM $25 americanrepertorytheater.org ISUMMER MUSIC SERIESl Boston Globe Ticket to the Arts ONE OF AMERICA'S GREAT COMPOSERS Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin is a "pitch perfect" tour de force featuring the most popular and enduring songs by 'America's Composer' Extended through Aug 2nd due to popular demand. Come sing along! JUL 08-AUG 02 617.824.8400 artsemerson.org FREE SHAKESPEARE ON THE COMMON: KING LEAR Presenting Shakespeare's monumental King Lear for Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's 20th Anniversary Season.

July 22 August 9, Parkman Bandstand at Boston Common. Tue-Sat at 8pm, Sun at 7pm, Sat Aug 8 at 3pm. More at commshakes.org 730 TOWER OF POWER 731 BLUES BROTHERS REVUE 81 Gordon Lightfoot 87 Lyle Lovett His Large Band 813 Trombone Shorty 814 Bruce Hornsby 815 Warren Haynes 822 WGBH A Celtic Sojourn 827- John Hiatt Taj Mahal 828 Lake Street Dive 829 Melissa Etheridge Tix at LowellSummerMusic.org Order Online through our Self Serve Order Entry System. 247 from anywhere. BOSTON'S HILARIOUS WHODUNIT! Tues-Fri at 8, Sat at 6 9, Sun at 3 7 Added show: 83 at 8pm To order 617-426-5225 or shearmadness.com Student rush specially priced senior tix Great group rates! 617-451-0195 Charles Playhouse, 74 Warrenton Street boston.comtickettothearts.