A poignant tribute to two musical titans and friends
Steph Power revels in Oliver Knussen’s take on four of Hans Werner Henze’s colourful orchestral works
Henze
Los Caprichos; Heliogabalus Imperator – allegoria per musica; Englische Liebslieder*; Ouverture zu einem theater *Anssi Karttunen (cello); BBC Symphony Orchestra/oliver Knussen Wergo WER 7344 2 72:11 mins The music world still mourns the recent loss of two titans who were great friends and mutual admirers: Hans Werner Henze (1926-2012) and – last year, aged just 66, and beloved champion of fellow composers – Oliver Knussen (1952-2018). How poignant, then, that this disc of Knussen conducting Henze should prove a marvellous tribute to them both.
Recorded live and in studio in 2014, it’s hard to imagine finer, more compelling elucidation of these four, dense and acrobatic scores than Knussen delivers with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and
Anssi Karttunen – soloist in the richly layered cello concerto, Englische Liebeslieder – on dazzling form. Showcasing Henze’s unique, chameleon combination of latin flair and post-expressionist German intensity, each work bursts with ideas, flamboyant colour – and mischief. The concerto and Heliogabalus Imperator are premiere recordings, respectively composed in 1984-85 and 1972 (following the ‘Cuban’ Symphony No. 6), and revised in 1986. Both veer from an ornate, angular lyricism to a kind of melancholic exuberance that reaches its wildest expression in the latter Allegoria per musica; a sensuous, sometimes brash and uproarious homage to Rome’s famously hedonistic emperor.
That ebullience reappears in the short Ouverture zu einem theater, completed with knowing irony just before Henze’s death. In the 1963 ‘Fantasia per orchester’ Los Caprichos, inspired by Goya’s grotesquely satirical engravings and aquatints, Schoenbergian fourths interlace in now warm, now threateningly astringent polyphony suggestive of Henze’s lifelong fascination with the relationship between reason and unbuttoned instinct. PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★★
Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine website at www.classical-music.com
It’s hard to imagine finer elucidation of these four, dense and acrobatic scores