Search - Hans Werner Henze, Berliner Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra :: Henze: Symphonies Nos. 1-6

"outright failures" that many composers could be proud to ha

Discophage | France | 05/26/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A review, by James H. North, of Henze's Symphonies 7 & 8 (Hans Werner Henze: Symphonies 7 & 8) published in the latest issue of Fanfare (May-June 2009) sent me back to this set. It began with the scathing statement that "Henze's Symphonies Nos. 1-6 (...) were outright failures". Nothing to indicate that the reviewer was expressing here a personal opinion, however provocative and disputable; but what appeared as statement of fact, or at least of some general consensus. "Outright failures", really? I heard the symphonies with interest when the set first came out years ago, and even with delight in the case of the First Symphony. Could I have been so wrong in my appreciation?



If Mr North views his all-out condemnation as reflecting some "general consensus", whose consensus it is I wonder. The research I've done on the Internet does not confirm that this undiscriminating dismissal is a widely-held view, and the fact that this set has been reissued in the UK in the "Critics' 1st Choice" series (ASIN B0009I7IT4 on the UK sister company) is also significant. And if Mr North was indeed expressing an opinion, considering its provocative nature, he might have attempted at least some demonstration. I'm all for a critic going AGAINST the accepted "idols", as long as his views, however disputable, are substantiated.



I checked on North's earlier review from 1991 of this very set. It was much less negative and ended with: "if Hartmann's eight symphonies appeal to you, you should investigate this continuation of the German symphonic tradition". I agree. So maybe North's memory got negatively colored by his even greater appreciation of Henze's ensuing symphonies.



Anyway, thanks to him for sending me back to this set. My own appreciation is even greater this time around. Written in its original form in 1947, the First Symphony underwent a radical revision in 1963 (which makes it contemporary with the Fifth, really), by which Henze reduced it to chamber-orchestra-size and, like Boulez later, tried to achieve then what he had not been able to reach in his youth. IMO, he has, and superbly. The debt to Stravinsky has often been remarked - but it is the Stravinsky of Agon: lithe, delicate-textured, highly lyrical in a stern way, syncopated and energetic in the finale. A magnificent work.



Symphony # 2 from 1949 is much more dramatic. Two sombre and brooding adagios rising to heights of dramatic intensity frame a fierce and agitated Allegro. The orchestra is more massive than in the first Symphony, with some alternation with the chamber-music atmosphere and delicate textures of interlacing solo instruments. I hear echoes of Stravinsky (Symphony in Three Movements), Berg (Wozzeck, Op. 6), Hartmann.



Symphony # 3 (1950) starts with an almost Britten-esque delicacy. It is magnificently lyrical and refined, with violent outburst of great drama. As the first, it is couched in delicate chamber-music textures and offers sensuous timbres, in which the saxophone stands out. Berg still looms large (like a chamber-version of Wozzeck), and, strangely, the orchestral world of Martinu also came occasionally to mind. The syncopated and furious finale, with outbursts of Free Jazz, develops tremendous energy. It is a superb composition. How North, even with the distance of time, can call it and its two predecessors "outright failures" confounds me.



The one-movement 4th Symphony (1955) is in fact the symphonic suite from the Act II finale of Henze's opera King Stag. It is also the most advanced thus far in its language, the one that sounds most like the symphony a twelve-tone composer would have written, and the one whose unity and logic of development seemed most difficult to grasp. Melodic threads seem to spurt in every direction like some untamed flora - fitting, possibly, since it is supposed to depict the four seasons in King Stag's forest. But it is replete with sonic events, again very delicately scored, with passages of great Schoenberg-like lyricism, and rising to great intensity in the final pages.



The fifth Symphony was written in 1962 for Leonard Bernstein and the NY Phil (the premiere performance can be heard on Bernstein Live at the New York Philharmonic [Box Set]). As its predecessor it derives some of its thematic material from an opera, Elegy for Young Lovers. Its first movement is mostly brutal, jagged, brassy, ominous - it is echoes of Varèse I hear at the beginning - with moments of Henze's typically austere lyricism and delicate orchestration (more echoes of Berg's mysterious atmospheres in Wozzeck); a remarkable feature is also an almost permanent and again very Bergian ostinato. That same austere and delicate lyricism pervades the central adagio, a pensive and dreamy unfolding featuring three cadenzas for alto flute, viola and cor anglais. The same alternation of austere and delicate lyricism and fierce brutality returns in the finale, a series of 32 short variations on some of the material from the slow movement. The symphony is not easy listening, but impressive and rewarding.



My only concession to Mr North will be re the 6th symphony, composed in 1969, at Henze's most politically radical, when he was living in Cuba. In it, the composer claimed to have taken the tools of "bourgeois music" to compose "anti-bourgeois music". What a case of wishful thinking. Despite the ear-catching sonorities of Banjo, electric guitar, amplified violin and Hammond organ and its wealth of sonic events, it is by far the most intractable, jagged, apparently disjointed of the series. It was played to a public of Cuban workers and soldiers: wonder how THEY reacted. Lucky for Henze that it wasn't composed in Stalin-ruled Russia. He would have ended with a 20-year sentence in the Gulag, if not with a bullet in the neck, to cure his dangerous formalist tendencies (and he himself seems to have realized it, speaking two years later, with reference to this work, of the "impossibility to write a symphony today").



Still, many composers from the post-1945 generations could be proud to have composed "outright failures" such as these.

"

Henze's are among the best of mid-century symphonies

R. Hutchinson | a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds | 05/10/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These first six symphonies of German composer Hans Werner Henze (b. 1926) should be more widely heard and known -- it astounds me no one has yet reviewed this 2-disc DG set. Symphonies 1 through 5 were recorded in 1964, with Henze leading the Berlin Philharmonic. No. 6 was recorded in 1972, with Henze leading the London Symphony Orchestra.



Symphonies No. 1 through No. 3 were written while Henze was still in Germany. No. 1 (1947 -- 17'17) is an astonishingly accomplished work for a 21-year old, though what we hear is the revised version of 1963, which streamlined and balanced the work, eliminating a fourth movement. Clearly influenced by Stravinsky, the three movement work makes its mark with the memorable central "Notturno." The dark Symphony No. 2 (1949 -- 20'59) is in the Second Vienna School tradition, also in three movements. Here the tragic outer movements surround the burning fury of the "Allegro molto vivace," and what seems to be an early statement of Henze's attitude toward Germany's WWII history. Symphony No. 3 (1949/50 -- 24'22) turns toward the sun with a ballet-as-symphony -- Henze was artistic director of the Weisbaden Ballet at the time of its composition. The three movements are called "Invocation of Apollo," "Dithyramb," and "Conjuring Dance." Featuring alto saxophone, it is a piece seemingly highly programmable by any current symphony orchestra, but of course it is never heard.



Symphonies No. 4 and No. 5 were composed after Henze's 1953 relocation to central Italy. Henze left behind what he considered the cold and repressive German culture and has lived in Italy ever since. The 4th and 5th are both translations of operatic writing to symphonic form, and reflect Henze's love of and immersion in the Italianate arioso tradition, blending it with the contrapuntal German tradition. No. 4 was conceived originally as the finale to the second act of "Konig Hirsch" (The Stag King), an evocation of the living forest and the passing of the seasons, according to Robert Henderson's liner notes. It is one continuous movement, but moves from a prelude to a sonata, then variations, scherzo and rondo. No. 5 (1962 -- 20'27) is perhaps the strongest of all six symphonies. It is based on material from the opera "Elegy for Young Lovers." All of Henze's influences and artistry combine to make this a great unknown symphony, with soaring lyricism and dark passages that plumb the depths of the human experience.



Finally, the Symphony No. 6 (1969 -- 37'34) was written in Cuba while Henze was teaching there for a year. It was dedicated to the revolution, and first performed for an audience that included students of the University of Havana, sons and daughters of workers, and soldiers. It is the most unconventional of the six symphonies, and of all ten Henze has by now composed. It includes guitar, banjo and electric organ in addition to two chamber orchestras, includes rhythms Latin American folk music, and moves through three parts, each subdivided.



This Deutsch Grammophon 2-disc set has quite a history. The original vinyl was first released on CD in 1991 in DG's 20th Century Classics series. Then in 1996, it was reissued as part of a multi-disc set called "The Henze Collection" in honor of the composer's 70th birthday. That set was reissued in the U.K. in 2005 in the "Critics' Choice" series of bargain 2-disc sets, which is the version I purchased. However, it was never released in the U.S. Now, Arkiv Music has reissued the 20th Century Classics version (with the dark blue globe on the cover) as an ArkivDisc. Don't miss it!



Those interested in Henze's symphonies should not miss his more recent 7th and 9th, and 8th (see my reviews). I consider the 7th to be one of Henze's masterworks. There is a recording of the 10th as well, which I have not yet heard. And the 8 symphonies of Karl Amadeus Hartmann are also superb (see my review). Hartmann and Henze are both German composers whose music represents a bridge between Mahler and the Second Vienna School and the wide-open sonic terrain of the late 20th and 21st centuries."