Teiresias

'Ein Orakelspruch für sechs Kontrabässe' (An oracle for six double-basses) – this is how Widmann calls his composition which he wrote upon commission of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on the occasion of the 75th birthday of the conductor Claudio Abbado. The subtle theme seems to be the saga of Teiresias, the blind prophet, from Greek mythology. According to Widmann himself, he imagined a sound for the unusual instrumentation of six double-basses that 'is both blind and seeing' in its enigmatic whispering.