If any admirers of the great German late-modernist composer
Hans Werner Henze missed the performances on these two discs when they were first released in 1992 and 1997, they should by all means try this EMI set. The first disc features
Simon Rattle and the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra performing
Henze's magnificently tragic Barcarola and his dramatic Symphony No. 7.
Rattle brings both manic energy and iron control to the music and the Birmingham musicians respond with the kind of expressive fervor usually reserved for
Mahler or Bruckner. And the second disc featuring
Ingo Metzmacher leading the
Berliner Philharmoniker and the Rundfunchor Berlin in
Henze's emotionally wrenching Ninth Symphony is even better. The work itself is a kind of negative Beethoven Ninth, a choral symphony evoking not the joyous dreams of heavenly Elysium but the nightmare horrors of Nazi hell that wins through to enigmatic escape in its seventh and final movement.
Metzmacher and his Berlin musicians perform with exemplary virtuosity and dedication, and it's hard to imagine how a performance of this work could possibly be more intense and effective than this one. In every case, EMI's digital recordings are wide, deep, and true, and the addition of the
Henze's lyrical Three Auden Songs performed by tenor
Ian Bostridge and pianist
Julius Drake will serve to remind listeners that
Henze is one of the supreme lieder composers of our time.