Mixed Media

CD of the Month

Henze Edition

He composed a good dozen ballets—a few full-length works, several shorter ones. And the true giants of the genre championed his work: Frederick Ashton, William Forsythe, Tatjana Gsovsky, Glen Tetley, Erich Walter. Yet evidently without lasting impact: not a single ballet performance marks the centenary of Hans Werner Henze’s birth on 1 July.

It is telling, too, that the timely Henze Edition from Wergo entirely omits the once so significant—"Danza" chapter of his life and work. Neither the once-frequently performed Undine ballet nor the much-discussed Orpheus appears among the—consistently older—recordings; only upon closer inspection does one discover, under the "Orchestra" heading, two early works: the Ballet Variations from the opera Boulevard Solitude and Das Vokaltuch der Kammersängerin Rosa Silber. In these recordings by theNDR Symphony Orchestra under Peter Ruzicka, both pieces hint at genuine artistic potential. The musical textures in both works are consistently subtle, and the melodic structure never aims for mere effect, remaining distinctively original. However, Henze realized early on that practice makes perfect. In the subtitle of Vokaltuch, he candidly describes it as an "Exercise with Stravinsky based on a painting by Klee."

Hartmut Regitz

Hans Werner Henze: Edition: Orchestra, featuring the NDR Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Peter Ruzicka; www.schott-music.com