Steve Schwartz:

>Points to Naxos for releasing this at all, if only for the first concerto,
>but you wish the project had turned out better.  It may make you wonder
>what all the fuss over Henze was about.

I have long had a Deutsche Grammophon recording of the first violin
concerto, with the composer conducting and Wolfgang Schneiderhan playing
(coupled with Henze's Ode to the West Wind), but I'm sorry to say that
the vinyl pressing was so bad I've never been able to hear it with any
pleasure.

Long ago I attended a performance of the Chicago Symphony playing one
of Henze's symphonies, with Henze conducting, I believe, but it did not
make a strong impression on me.  Much more recently I set out to review
his (1967) second piano concerto, which seems to be a long and powerful
work but, after several times listening to it, I didn't feel I had gotten
my head around it, so I gave it up.

The two works of Henze that have excited me are his Telemanniana, also
from 1967, recorded with that piano concerto, which I wrote about here
once; and his Double Concerto for Oboe, Harp and Strings (1966).  Very
different works, though both written for very modest forces.  The double
concerto is currently available; Telemanniana on cpo does not seem to
be available in the US, Germany or France except for a stray used copy
or two.  Amazon.de says they can order it from the UK but I was not able
to connect with an Amazon website there to verify that.

Jim Tobin

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