Thanks for all the messages.  With Henze, I feel like I'm standing on the
shore of a vast sea, not knowing where to start or what to look for, so I
appreciate all suggestions.  Maybe it's not the vastest of oceans but it's
certainly an interesting point from which to explore.

My interest was piqued by his recent Six Songs from the Arabian.  If anyone
wants my detailed review, just ask.  In March, there was an extensive Henze
retrospective in London featuring selections from all stages of his career,
and performances of works which influenced him.  Christoph von Dohnanyi
spoke on the 5th Symphony and the Requiem, which by most accounts are his
masterpieces.

While Henze would seem to be a remarkably consistent composer, the Henze
of the 60's and 70's seems very different to the Henze of today.  Six
Songs from the Arabian has been called "the last truly great work of the
twentieth century".  Henze says that he is fascinated by voice in all
forms, many of his works start with voice and are gradually sublimated
into "pure" non vocal music.  When Henze first heard Bostridge he was so
intrigued by the potential of Bostridge's unusual voice that he determined
to write a piece that would bring out its full potential.  Hence, the Six
Songs, which put a tenor through a gauntlet of challenges.  There are leaps
and changes of key and character which happen so swiftly that it must be
incredibly demanding, but exhilirating to master.  There are long lines and
notes that have to be held without accompaniment, which have to be coloured
and shaped withourt breaking the flow.  Thus the piece gives a singer great
scope to mark the stamp stamp of his own originality.

At the retrospective, it was performed in contrast to the famous "Voices"
which premiered in the very same venue thirty years before - a humbling
thought.  Voices is like the Aids Quilt, a patchwork of individual
testimonies and statements, each unique and in a different style, just as
the people they commemorated were individuals with their own voices.  The
poets vary from Heine to Ho Chi Minh, the stories are those of war victims,
street people, the "Wretched of the Earth".  The range of styles is as
individual as the settings, lieder, marches, folksong, cabaret songs,
even a vaguely "oriental" piece.  As such, there are some immortal gems:
"Pasi", an old man singing about a friend of his youth who died for the
resistance and remains forever beautiful, and the Worker, a man killed in
an industrial accident, the machines whirring on as if they were
applauding.

Voices must have been spectacular in the political ferment of those
turbulent times.  There are pieces in it that would have worked as street
theatre then, or seemed innovative but don't necessarily work today, out of
context.  Perhaps a composer with less passion would have edited more.  But
Henze believes in committment, and that music must play apart in changing
society and speak to the people, not just to the cognoscenti.  Interesting
dilemma, that.

Which leads back to the Six Songs.  These songs are still political, in the
sense that they are about third world folk.  But these songs transcend the
particular, they aspire to the universal.  Henze hasn't lost his idealism
but has gained a more complex awareness of undercurrents in the human
psyche that create suffering.  The quality of the musical writing is,
like the poetry (Henze's own), much more refined, subtle and elegant.

In Germany the last song in Voices is often left out because people think
a collection of songs about grim things shouldn't end with a celebration of
flowers.  Henze says, on the contrary, it's important to end the collection
in this way because happiness is our ultimate goal.  This song makes me
think of those folk festivals in India or Latin America where people's
lives are enlivened by festivals where, for a short while, they can forget
their sufferings in an orgy of colour and hedonism.  Perhaps this isn't
politically doctrinaire but it says much about the power of the human
spirit, and is a theme to which Henze returns in many of his other works.
The last of the Six Songs plays the same role - it's about coming together
to overcome horror:  "My earthly journey is threatened by the Fiend /avert
his hatred, give me your hand".  It's a brave hope, somewhat subverted by
the macabre accompaniment.

My background is Mahler, Hugo Wolf, Eisler, so Henze is a little outside
my usual fare, though I can see the influence they had on him.  I'd be
extremely grateful for advice as I worry that there may be uneven moments
in such a vast repertoire.  Most of his later work, apart from the Requiem,
seems to focus on song and chamber pieces, which appeal to me most.  I'll
look out for the Bassarids and the Young Lord.  The DG boxed set is around
but beyond my means.  BTW, be careful, there are two recordings of Voices,
one of which leaves out the best songs!

With sincere thanks,

Anne
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