Hans Werner Henze: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 10
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- Wergo
- February 14, 2014
HENZE Symphonies Nos. 2 and 10 • Marek Janowski, cond; RSO Berlin • WERGO 6725 (56:35)
This CD completes Marek Janowski’s recorded cycle of the 10 Henze symphonies—the first complete set. Not all the performances have been the preferred ones, due to tough competition from the likes of Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, and Ingo Metzmacher (see Fanfare 37.4). This disc immediately announces itself as a winner: the Second Symphony explodes into colorful life, as it failed to do with the composer leading the Berlin Philharmonic, the only other recording. The playing of the Berlin Radio Symphony is solid and clean, and Janowski’s final Adagio reaches depths not heard from Henze’s Philharmonic. Wergo’s recorded sound is less conservative than is its wont, with superbly realistic strings, allowing us to wallow in Henze’s rich sonorities, but the percussion are somewhat slighted. A bombastic coda keeps the work from being a total success, but this recording makes me revise a recently expressed opinion (Hartmann symphonies, in Fanfare 37:6) that Henze “penned five or six trivial [symphonies] before settling in.”
The 10th (1997/2000) was to be his last, one over the proverbial limit, following a choral Ninth. It is Henze’s most Classical symphony; four conventional movements have titles that are merely suggestive rather than programmatic: “A Storm,” “A Hymn,” “A Dance,” “A Dream.” The scoring is for quadruple woodwinds, six horns, four trumpets, four trombones, harp, piano, celesta, and a large battery of percussion. The second movement is for strings alone, the third almost entirely percussion, with a few heavy brass outbursts—it’s a joy. The outer movements have the serious mien of good old German symphonic tradition. This performance is strong and weighty; that by Orchestre National de Montpellier under Friedemann Layer ( Fanfare 29:2) is lighter and brighter, as is its Accord recording. Both serve the symphony well, and both CDs contain other recordings essential for the Henze buff.
Congratulations to Marek Janowski and to Wergo for this fine first complete set of Henze symphonies.
FANFARE: James H. North
Product Description:
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Release Date: February 14, 2014
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UPC: 4010228672527
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Catalog Number: WER67252
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Label: Wergo
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Number of Discs: 1
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Composer: Hans Werner, Henze
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Performer: Janowski, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin