Hans Werner Henze - 80th Birthday on 1 July 2006
On behalf of the entire staff of Schott Music, we offer Hans Werner Henze our congratulations on the occasion of his 80th birthday on 1 July 2006. The Schott publishing house has accompanied him and his music for almost 60 years. During these six decades, he has created a unique oeuvre which represents a milestone in the history of music and of Schott and which really makes us all proud and grateful. Happy birthday, dear Maestro!Born in Westphalia in 1926, Henze received his musical training against the background of the rise of National Socialism in Germany. His realization that modern music, art and literature were banned by the Nazis ingrained in him the belief in the political potential of art; this attitude was to surface explicitly in the music he composed thirty years later. After the Second World War he resumed his formal education, studying with Wolfgang Fortner, and composed the first works to be included in his catalogue in an elegant neo-classical style, which take from Stravinsky and Hindemith while already demonstrating the innate lyrical gift that has characterized Henze’s music in all its phases. In the late 1940s, Henze attended the Darmstadt Summer Courses and explored serialism. But in 1953, Henze left Germany and moved to Italy, where the complete change of scenery and culture brought a new richness and colour into his music. After a period of overt political engagement in the late 60’s and 70’s, he turned again to more traditional forms.
Henze’s abundant creative powers remain undimmed: on 26 August, the Salzburg Festival presents the world première of his new version of the musical drama Gogo no Eiko. Throughout almost sixty years of collaboration with the Schott publishing house, he has written over 40 dramatic works as well as 10 symphonies, concertos, chamber music, oratorios, song-cycles and a huge instrumental requiem. Schott has published study scores of more than seventy of his stage and orchestral works: among the most recent editions are The Bassarids (ED 9411) and the musical fairy-tale Pollicino (ED 9122). To mark his 80th birthday, Schott is bringing out a boxed set of all 10 symphonies, Complete Symphonies (ED 9999). Henze’s most recent dramatic work Aristaeus has just been released on our WERGO label with the choral cycle Orpheus behind the Wire (WER 66802).
Henze’s abundant creative powers remain undimmed: on 26 August, the Salzburg Festival presents the world première of his new version of the musical drama Gogo no Eiko. Throughout almost sixty years of collaboration with the Schott publishing house, he has written over 40 dramatic works as well as 10 symphonies, concertos, chamber music, oratorios, song-cycles and a huge instrumental requiem. Schott has published study scores of more than seventy of his stage and orchestral works: among the most recent editions are The Bassarids (ED 9411) and the musical fairy-tale Pollicino (ED 9122). To mark his 80th birthday, Schott is bringing out a boxed set of all 10 symphonies, Complete Symphonies (ED 9999). Henze’s most recent dramatic work Aristaeus has just been released on our WERGO label with the choral cycle Orpheus behind the Wire (WER 66802).
(06/26/2006)
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