Search - H.W. Henze :: Henze: Symphony 9 (Sinfonia N. 9)

Henze composes his homage to anti fascism.

12/08/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Henze was a young man during the rise of Hitler. His father forced him into the Hitler Youth an organisation that Henze despised. Throughout his life Henze has been haunted by fascism. When neo-nazi's reared their ugly heads in the 1950s Henze moved to Italy. In the ninety sixties Henze embarked on a series of pieces about fascism and it's related movements. Henze's music battled against all forms of oppression. In a large way Henze's Ninth Symphony is a culmination of all his work. It is his great statement against the nazi's. It is one of the few times when he has written so definitely about the defining cause of his life. This is the cause of anti-fascism. This symphony follows the escape of a man who is being held for being anti nazi. The piece covers his voyage from detention to freedom in Holland. He has to lie in the mud to escape his captors and later swim a river. He has a quasi religious event in a church with thundering organ chords punctuating his voice. The choir takes all roles in this piece, like Stravinsky uses the choir in Les Noces. The orchestra is also vital in telling the story. The music is disturbing in a way that even Henze has rarely acheived. The music mixes tonal and less tonal techniques giving a very unsettling backdrop to the story. Henze's final message is that though fascism has been defeated it has not been vanquished, and that we must remain ever vigilant in case it ever threatens to take hold again. It is no co-incidence that Henze chose this theme for his ninth symphony. He sees the work as a realistic answer to the joy and optimism of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Henze has had to write against a backdrop of such awful events in the twentieth century that he is unable to completly embrace the optimism of Beethovens symphony and he prefers to give us a warning of the dangers of complacency. As always Henze succesfully manages to convey a starkly political message in a pwerful and artistic manner. His music is always of the highest standard and does not capitulate to his message, it enhances it."

If you want to discover this symphony...

Alex | Chicago USA | 08/08/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"...there is a recording available at an affordable price at the e-store of the NY Philharmonic website: it's the US premiere with Kurt Masur conducting."