Top 5 Henze Composition

[bwv 1080]

Henze is a very hit & miss composer for me, alot of pieces that I really love and many that leave me cold

leaving aside the solo guitar pieces, which are at the top of the modern repertoire:

Symphony #2
Carillion, Recitatif, Masque
Undine
Symphony #5
The Bassarids

[relm1]

I like his more traditional (for him) works like:
Symphony No. 7
Barcarola
Symphony No. 10
La Selva Incantata
Quattro Poemi
Tristan

I find these very colorful, gripping, and imaginative and never too difficult. 

[bwv 1080]

I like his more traditional (for him) works like:
Symphony No. 7
Barcarola
Symphony No. 10
La Selva Incantata
Quattro Poemi
Tristan

I find these very colorful, gripping, and imaginative and never too difficult.

I would say Tristan is one of his more radical works though, just heard it for the first time having just acquired the complete DG set

[relm1]

I would say Tristan is one of his more radical works though, just heard it for the first time having just acquired the complete DG set

Hmm, I will re listen.  I found it quite engaging on first encounter.

[bwv 1080]

Hmm, I will re listen.  I found it quite engaging on first encounter.

Have barely listened to it, but it does use tape and is from the early 70s, which was his more avant guard period - but would your comments as praise for the work

[relm1]

Have barely listened to it, but it does use tape and is from the early 70s, which was his more avant guard period - but would your comments as praise for the work

I don't think he is quite so easy to categorize into simple buckets of early 70's with tape = avant guard.  He was pan stylistic and in a single work could be brazen and lushly romantic.  Similarly to Rihm which I think is a good comparison with this composer. 

[Mirror Image]

Henze is quite a difficult composer for me to understand. I suppose one of the hardest things to figure out about him is what makes up his compositional voice. I hear shades of Stravinsky, Berg, Hartmann, but also some jazz (on occasion). I'd really like to nail down what is the essence of this composer. What do you guys think? Also, what work would you say is 'signature' Henze?

P.S. I couldn't find the Henze composer thread, so I thought I would post these questions here.

[Mr Bloom]

P.S. I couldn't find the Henze composer thread, so I thought I would post these questions here.

It's here : http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,19639.0.html

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Henze is quite a difficult composer for me to understand. I suppose one of the hardest things to figure out about him is what makes up his compositional voice. I hear shades of Stravinsky, Berg, Hartmann, but also some jazz (on occasion). I’d really like to nail down what is the essence of this composer. What do you guys think? Also, what work would you say is ‘signature' Henze?

P.S. I couldn’t find the Henze composer thread, so I thought I would post these questions here.

He's an interesting character to examine when it comes to musical style as he doesn't so easily fit into any particular 'camp'. He had music performed at Boulez's Le Domaine Musical and Darmstadt and took summer courses at Darmstadt too, but he had a fairly negative opinion of the kind of atmosphere and approach to teaching and learning composition during those summer courses. Also he had much experience as a conductor in ballet productions, perhaps owing some inspiration for his theatrical works and operas?  He did a little bit of everything throughout his life and although he was very active in both the typically more radical areas in music as well as the more conservative, he was consistently a bit of an outsider due to his political views and his homosexuality. I wouldn't say this 'outsider' status particularly influenced his style, but it could be viewed as an interesting correlation to the difficulty in putting his music in any one box (and I would hesitate to call him a 'polystylist' because of how different his music tends to be from composers like Schnittke).

[Mirror Image]

He's an interesting character to examine when it comes to musical style as he doesn't so easily fit into any particular 'camp'. He had music performed at Boulez's Le Domaine Musical and Darmstadt and took summer courses at Darmstadt too, but he had a fairly negative opinion of the kind of atmosphere and approach to teaching and learning composition during those summer courses. Also he had much experience as a conductor in ballet productions, perhaps owing some inspiration for his theatrical works and operas?  He did a little bit of everything throughout his life and although he was very active in both the typically more radical areas in music as well as the more conservative, he was consistently a bit of an outsider due to his political views and his homosexuality. I wouldn't say this 'outsider' status particularly influenced his style, but it could be viewed as an interesting correlation to the difficulty in putting his music in any one box (and I would hesitate to call him a 'polystylist' because of how different his music tends to be from composers like Schnittke).

Thanks for this, Jessop. Thankfully, I don't have any more Henze coming my way since I cancelled that Presto order! I don't know what I was thinking buying all of that postwar/Contemporary stuff! Not that I dislike all of it of course. My heart really belongs to the 19th Century and early to mid-20th Century.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Thanks for this, Jessop. Thankfully, I don’t have any more Henze coming my way since I cancelled that Presto order! I don’t know what I was thinking buying all of that postwar/Contemporary stuff! Not that I dislike all of it of course. My heart really belongs to the 19th Century and early to mid-20th Century.

Fair enough! Good to know that you know what you love most.