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 Saturday 16 January
TOTAL IMMERSION: HANS WERNER HENZE
Art, classical music and literature banned by the Nazis somehow reached young Hans Werner Henze as he grew up in a small German village during the 1930s. It fuelled his desire to become a musician and shaped his worldview. “Everything that the fascists persecute and hate is beautiful to me,” he later recalled. An astonishingly prolific and influential composer, Henze’s work includes over 30 operas and ballet scores and 10 symphonies. Today’s compelling Total Immersion programme prefaces the UK premiere of his 14th opera, Phaedra, at the Barbican on 17 January.
10.30am Film, Cinema 2
Hans Werner Henze: Memoirs of an Outsider
Barrie Gavin’s portrait of Hans Werner Henze, made for the composer’s 75th birthday. Interviewed at his home outside Rome, the composer talks about his childhood in Nazi Germany, his later need to leave the country and his ostracism by the post-war avant–garde. The film includes footage of performances and contributions from Simon Rattle, Oliver Knussen and Markus Stenz.
Dir: Barrie Gavin 2001 89 mins
£6
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1.00pm Concert, Barbican Hall
Hans Werner Henze
Voices
Guildhall New Music Ensemble
Conductor to be announced
Vocal soloists from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama
Voices, written for the London Sinfonietta and first performed by them in 1974, is Henze’s great song against oppression and alienation. Here is a cycle of 22 poems, chosen by the composer to represent his left-wing politics. “The voices of the title are those of young and old artists whose work is politically committed,” he explains. “These people are concerned with their fellow human beings, with the contemporary human condition within the world around them and with all the problems of race and class in which they themselves often seem fated to be embroiled.”
£12
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4.00pm Film, Cinema 2
Henze’s Requiem
A performance of the nine Sacred Concertos which make up Henze's Requiem dedicated to the memory of Michael Viner, with Uli Wiglet piano, Håkan Hardenberger trumpet and Ensemble Modern, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher.
UK, 2001, Dir. Barrie Gavin 71mins
£6
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6.00pm Talk, Mozart Room
A discussion Henze’s significance and influence and introduces tonight’s concert.
Admission by free ticket only. Limited availability but admission guaranteed with a Day Pass.
6.30pm Free Event
Barbican Freestage
The culmination of a BBC SO Learning project inspired by the music of Hans Werner Henze.
7.00pm Concert, Barbican Hall
Hans Werner Henze
Fraternité
Symphony No. 4
Elogium musicum (UK premiere)
Plus music for solo piano
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Oliver Knussen conductor
Huw Watkins piano
BBC Symphony Chorus
Sensuous beauty, emotional extremes and music of almost supernatural enchantment meet in Henze’s Fourth Symphony, written for large orchestra in 1955. Tonight’s programme seduces the ear with a strong flavour of the composer’s works for solo piano, before exploring the bold colours of his ‘air for orchestra’, Fraternité. The latter was aptly described following its world premiere in 1999 as ‘a restless search for lasting harmony’. Elogium Musicum, first heard in Leipzig in 2008, is the octogenarian composer’s serene, profoundly moving and consoling ‘obituary’ for his companion of over 40 years.
£24 £20 £16 £12 £8
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Sunday 17 January, 7.30pm
Hans Werner Henze
Phaedra (UK premiere)
Ensemble Modern
Michael Boder conductor
Part of the Barbican's Present Voices series - click herefor more details
Save money and guarantee entry to all events on Saturday 16 January with a Total Immersion: Hans Werner Henze Day Pass. There is a choice of pass, reflecting the range of ticket prices for concerts in the Barbican Hall. Available by telephone, on 020 7638 8891, or in person only.
Please note that the performance of Phaedra on Sunday 17 January is not included in the Day Pass.
Day Passes £38 £35 £32 £29 £26
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 Saturday 23 January 7.30pm
DUTILLEUX Métaboles
RAVEL/COUPERIN Le tombeau de Couperin
COUPERIN Le tic-toc-choc; Les baricades mistérieuses
RAVEL Piano Concerto in G
STRAVINSKY The Firebird - Suite
Lionel Bringuier conductor
Angela Hewitt piano
Angela Hewitt’s understanding of early dance informs her captivating performances of Baroque repertoire. Her revelatory interpretations of Couperin’s solo keyboard pieces here provide the perfect complement to Ravel’s spirited orchestral version of Le Tombeau de Couperin and his jazz-tinged Piano Concerto in G. The programme opens with Métaboles by veteran French composer Henri Dutilleux, an enchanting work in which the germ of musical ideas are introduced in one movement and developed in the next.
Pre-concert talk, 6.00pm
Fountain Room
An introduction to tonight’s concert
Free to ticket-holders for the evening concert. Limited availability – please arrive early to avoid disappointment.
BBC Family Music Intro concert
An introduction to concert-going for families with tickets at £5 each and a free Meet the Musicians Family event.
Full details of BBC SO Family Music Intro
£24 £20 £16 £12 £8
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 Saturday 30 January 7.30pm
WEBERN Passacaglia
RAVEL Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
R. STRAUSS Burleske
ZIMMERMAN Photoptosis
RAVEL La valse
Susanna Mälkki conductor
Artur Pizarro piano
Pianist Paul Wittgenstein, older brother of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, lost his right arm while serving with the Austrian army during World War One. Among the works he later commissioned or inspired for monodextrous performance, Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand rightly established a permanent place in the piano repertoire. Bernd-Alois Zimmermann’s haunting Photoptosis (1968) explores the suspension and expansion of musical time itself, an idea directly inspired by Anton Webern’s work and soundworld.
Pre-concert talk, 6.00pm
Barbican Hall
An introduction to tonight’s concert
BBC Family Music Intro concert
An introduction to concert-going for families with tickets at £5 each and a free Meet the Musicians Family event.
Full details of BBC SO Family Music Intro
£24 £20 £16 £12 £8
Buy Tickets
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