Heinz Winbeck is an unusual case. Up until a few years ago he was known to only to initiates as an eccentric Bavarian who could...

Heinz Winbeck is an unusual case. Up until a few years ago he was known to only to initiates as an eccentric Bavarian who could not be placed in the cubby-hole of any particular style. Since 1984 however, since the premiere in Donaueschingen of his “First Symphony” which in the following year attracted additional attention in a new version, suddenly there has been keen attention in and curiosity. The “Second Symphony” for Saarbrucken and the “Third Symphony” for Munich followed soon thereafter. The music world suddenly had to realize that it had overlooked a significant, important, and totally unorthodox composer (he had written fine music prior to his symphonies, as the “Second String Quartet” demonstrates). It is in fact difficult to categorize Winbeck’sscores with some kind of “school”, because they exhibit no dogma, no stylistic direction. He permits himself to be a subjective composer (something which in a time which preaches objectivity he has said, “I sometimes fear myself to be”). Highly impetuous but equally sensitive, he permits himself, as a completely contemporary man, to come under the spell of the music of the past – “the nearness to the works of the past does not just happen to me; I consciously arrange it”. “All I can say is that I literally only put down on paper that which, were I not to do so, would cause me to explode.” This exposed inner world or – as Franz Hummel has said – the territory of this music should be avoided by those unable to enter without prejudice.