Jacques Widerkehr (1759-1823)
- Simphonie Concertante (en Do majeur) pour Cor et Basson (c.1800)
Performers: Pеtеr Arnοld (horn); Ebеrhаrd Buschmаnn (bassoon);
SWR Rundfunkorchester Kаiserlаutern
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Alsatian composer and cellist. According to Choron and Fayolle he was a
pupil of F.X. Richter. In the title-pages of his works his name appears
as J. Widerkehr l'aîné and in his six violin duos opp.3 and 4 (c.1794)
he identified himself as the pupil of Dumonchau, professor of the cello
in Strasbourg and father of the pianist Charles-François Dumonchau.
Choron and Fayolle maintained that Widerkehr came to Paris in 1783 as
cellist of the Concert Spirituel and the Concert de la Loge Olympique;
however, the absence of his name among the cellists in Les spectacles de
Paris (1794-1800) and other almanacs implies that he never held a
regular post in a major Parisian orchestra. He probably made his living
as a teacher, occasionally as a performer, and as a composer of
instrumental works, which appeared regularly from the early 1790s.
Widerkehr achieved considerable fame as an instrumental composer, above
all for his symphonies concertantes for several wind instruments, of
which Fétis, seconding the opinion of Choron and Fayolle, wrote: ‘These
works and those of Devienne were for many years the best of that genre
known in France’. Around 1800, when most of Widerkehr's works in this
form were written, the symphonie concertante was more popular than the
symphony itself on French concert programmes. Widerkehr's 12 to 15
essays in this genre were written for a variety of solo combinations,
predominantly two or three wind instruments; they were performed by
outstanding virtuosos in several Parisian concert halls and ‘chez le
Premier Consul’. No.4 in F was ambitiously orchestrated for clarinet,
flute, oboe, horn, two bassoons and cello as solo instruments, with an
orchestra of strings, two oboes and two horns. The few extant examples
of these works are melodious, well-wrought and light in mood.
Widerkehr’s chamber works, written mainly for the large amateur market
of the time and frequently allowing for the substitution of instruments,
were likewise successful. His ten string quartets are tuneful and show
the hand of an experienced string player; the two quintets have rather
demanding first violin parts, but the other parts are simple and purely
accompanimental. The Mercure de France (August 1794) described his Trois
duo concertants op.4 as delighting both amateurs and artists alike, and
one of his Trois duos pour piano et violon ou hautbois was quite
favourably received in Germany (G.L.P. Sievers: ‘Musikalisches Allerley
aus Paris, vom Monate July’ AMZ, xx, 1818, cols.641–6, esp.642).
Widerkehr is sometimes confused with Philippe Widerkehr le jeune (fl.
Paris, 1793-1816), a trombonist, composer and teacher who may have been
his brother. The name appears several times in Les spectacles de Paris
among the trombonists, and as the composer of a two-volume Pot-pourri
pour le forte piano (Paris, c.1803). In 1793 he was a corporal and
trombonist in the Parisian National Guard, and from 1795 to 1816 he was a
professor of solfège at the Conservatoire.
