"As far back as I can remember, I have always been fascinated with fairy tales: with their archetypal characters and set phrases like Once upon a time and they all lived happily ever after. Fairy tales were however also a source of unrest for me as a seismograph of mankinds underlying primal fears and desires. So as a performer and composer I have always felt that Robert Schumanns Märchenerzählungen [Fairy Tales] (scored for the same instrumentation as my own composition) was a disjointed, complex contemporary work despite the innocence and naivety of its initial appearance. I therefore do not intend my own Es war einmal [Once upon a time ] to be a mere sentimental, nostalgic flight into the distant past, but as a naive and fantastical alternative concept to our genuine world with all its upheavals." - Jörg Widmann
Performance duration (approx): 29'00"
