Tamara Stefanovich and Jörg Widmann return to Salzburger Festspiele in a chamber music concert on 20 August centred around Boulez’s Piano Sonata No.2 and Dialogue de l’ombre double, marking the 100^th anniversary of the composer’s birth this year. The programme also includes Stravinsky’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Debussy’s Jeux (arranged for two pianos), with Tamara Stefanovich joined by her long-time partner Nenad Lečić.

Jörg Widmann once described Boulez’s Dialogue de l’ombre double as the ​“Mount Everest of the oeuvre for clarinet” — a milestone in contemporary music, which had a particular influence on his own musical career. Written for clarinet and tape, the work explores a theatrical dialogue between the live performer and their recorded ​‘shadow’, a striking metaphor for memory, echo, and multiplicity.

Tamara Stefanovich has released Boulez’s Piano Sonata No.2, which she studied in close collaboration with the composer, on her recent album Organised Delirium. The recording has been praised by The Guardian as ​“fearless, dazzling, exceptional”, capturing the clarity, passion, and intensity she brings to one of the most demanding and ground breaking pieces in piano repertoire. She describes the sonata as the ​“Hammerklavier Sonata of the 20^th century”.