Henze: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8

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Inspired by three speeches in A MidsummerNight's Dream, Henze's Eighth (1992-93) is the most beguiling and immediately appealing of them, beautifully written for the orchestra and luminous in... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 27th Oct 2008
Catalogue No: WER67212
Label: Wergo
Series: Marek Janowski Henze Complete Symphonies
Length: 60 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Henze, H: Symphony No. 7

Work length34:48

$6.50

$9.10

Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Marek Janowski

I. Tanz

Track length11:19

$2.00

$2.80

II. Ruhig Bewegt

Track length11:08

$2.00

$2.80

III. Unablässig In Bewegung

Track length5:20

$1.00

$1.40

IV. Ruhig, Verhalten

Track length7:01

$1.50

$2.10

Henze, H: Symphony No. 8

Work length25:33

$4.50

$6.30

Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Marek Janowski

I. Allegro

Track length7:40

$1.50

$2.10

II. Allegramente con comodo tenerezza e ballabilità

Track length9:46

$1.50

$2.10

III. Adagio

Track length8:07

$1.50

$2.10

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The symphony has been declared dead countless times over the past century. Nevertheless, Hans Werner Henze sought all his life to come to terms with symphonic form. On the occasion of his Symphony No. 8, he said: "I do not allow myself to be deterred from writing symphonies. I lay claim to this venue for addressing a large public in music, created especially for messages that go beyond the private. I won't let anyone steal it from me, even if modern cultural philosophy has declared this form dead-and perhaps precisely because it has." Whereas his No. 7 “is the one that comes closest to the model of the classical symphony", and has a strong relation to Friedrich Hölderlin's life and torment, his No. 8 is a symphony based on Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, "very light on its feet and rich in melody" (Henze).

Reviews

2010

Inspired by three speeches in A MidsummerNight's Dream, Henze's Eighth (1992-93) is the most beguiling and immediately appealing of them, beautifully written for the orchestra and luminous in tone. Janowski and his Berlin players audibly relish Puck's putting a girdle round the earth (though in under eight minutes, not Shakespeare's 40!), traversing from middle C to the polar extremes of the orchestra's register.
There's fun in the Ballabille scherzo where Janowski catches the Stravinskian rhythmic undertow.
This is the third outing for the Seventh (1984), making it Henze's most recorded. Sadly, the strongest account – Rattle's, made for EMI while still at Birmingham – is currently unavailable.
Despite differences in approach, not least in duration with Rattle three and a half minutes slower (mostly in the sonata-form second movement and finale), Janowski's will do very nicely.
True, Janowski does not match Rattle's impulsion in the opening Tanz (also in sonata form) but his performance catches fire in the central movements, especially in the Scherzo's macabre depiction of the instruments of torture used on the poet Hölderlin. Janowski's finale – much swifter than Rattle's – is wholly convincing. If the symphonies alone are your priority, Janowski's disc is the best option.

December 2008

Strong performances from Berlin of two highly contrasted symphonies.

24th October 2008

This performance [of the Seventh] under Marek Janowski makes its ripe language very potent, with the finale in particular an epilogue of almost Mahlerian destructive intensity. The Eighth, inspired by Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is a slighter, lighter work, but balances the Seventh perfectly in this rewarding coupling.

Henze: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8

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