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- Hans Werner Henze
Scorribanda Sinfonica (2001)
(Sopra la tomba di una Maratona)- Chester Music Ltd (World)
Commissioned by Norddeutscher Rundfunk
- 4(2pic:pic,afl).2+ca+obda.4(2bcl).4(cbn)/4331/timp.5perc/hp.cel.pf/str(14.12.10.8.6)
- 15 min
Programme Note
This piece, written during the winter months of 2000-2001, consists of one movement, Allegro con fuoco, in which an old score is revisited, raided and ravished by its composer. The earlier music had been written in the mid-fifties for a stage work Maratona di Danza and for its maker, the director Luchino Visconti.
Elements from the older piece reappear on and off like shadows under the surface of new ones, like more or less vague memories, images of young people suffering pain and despair in their struggle for survival in a barbaric, pitiless modern world.
My new composition is a kind of concerto for very large symphony orchestra, an étude on constant and often rapid musical changes of mood and colours, built on a variety of rhythmic figures, incessantly and brutally pushing the music ahead. Sometimes, it is as though voices are weeping, sometimes crying out loud with pain, with anxiety, under the cold hearted pressure of an overwhelming violence.
© Hans Werner Henze
Elements from the older piece reappear on and off like shadows under the surface of new ones, like more or less vague memories, images of young people suffering pain and despair in their struggle for survival in a barbaric, pitiless modern world.
My new composition is a kind of concerto for very large symphony orchestra, an étude on constant and often rapid musical changes of mood and colours, built on a variety of rhythmic figures, incessantly and brutally pushing the music ahead. Sometimes, it is as though voices are weeping, sometimes crying out loud with pain, with anxiety, under the cold hearted pressure of an overwhelming violence.
© Hans Werner Henze
Media
Scores
Features
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Reviews
‘Scorribanda’ opens with a flash of percussion before quickly moving into a lush storminess led by a big, brash, brass section while shimmering strings and chattering woodwinds race around in the background. There are occasional passages of relaxed playfulness if not quite repose, but for the most part the piece is strongly rhythmic (it’s dance roots show), colourful, sonic spectacular that will impress even those whose cup of tea isn’t 20th, let alone 21st century music.
18th October 2002
Discography
Hans Werner Henze
- LabelWergo
- Catalogue NumberWER 6657 2
- ConductorPeter Ruzicka
- EnsembleNDR Symphony Orchestra