Jörg Widmann - Arche

The Guardian 60

Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg/Nagano
ECM, two CDs

The Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg’s long delayed and wildly over-budget concert hall, officially opened in January last year. The inaugural concert did include a new work – an orchestral song cycle by Wolfgang Rihm – but the major premiere of the celebrations followed two days later, when Kent Nagano and the Hamburg Philharmonic introduced Jörg Widmann’s evening-long oratorio, Arche.

It’s that first performance, involving soprano and baritone soloists Marlis Petersen and Thomas E Bauer, as well as adult and children’s choirs, an organ and a huge orchestra, all of them expertly marshalled by Nagano, which is now released on disc.