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 [log in to unmask]