Ian Bostridge - Henze: Sechs Gesänge aus dem Arabischen, Three Auden Songs

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Songs from the Arabian is one of those conceits you often find in the romantic Lieder repertory. These songs come wholly--text and music--from the pen of the composer, Hans Werner Henze. And, as both components took shape in his mind at much the same time, they have an integrity, a mutual responsiveness, that makes them easier on the ear than Henze's idiom often is. The writing is harmonically evasive to the point of irritation. But it's also finely colored and virtuosically capricious, with a strength that manages to be seductive, too. It's also wonderfully well-suited to the pleading, sinewy high tenor of the soloist, Ian Bostridge, who premiered the songs in 1999. He was also their inspiration in that Henze was moved to write them after hearing a Bostridge performance of his Auden Songs. The readings here, accompanied by Bostridge's regular partner, Julius Drake, are immaculate, with all the ethereal beauty of tone and sensitivity to text that first made Bostridge a star. A major release in the contemporary music catalog, and with potential appeal even to those who think the contemporary world isn't their patch. --Michael White

Ian Bostridge - Henze: Sechs Gesänge aus dem Arabischen, Three Auden Songs, Music, Hans Werner Henze, Julius Drake, Ian Bostridge, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Classical Vocals, Song Collection for Solo Voice and Orchestra, Vocal

Average customer rating:

Snap up the used copies of this important disk. How it is out of print is beyond me.

Ian Bostridge - Henze: Sechs Gesänge aus dem Arabischen, Three Auden Songs

Manufacturer: EMI Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

All Works by Henze | Henze, Hans Werner | ( H ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
Bostridge, Ian | ( B ) | Featured Performers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
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Amazon.com's Best of 2001

Songs from the Arabian is one of those conceits you often find in the romantic Lieder repertory. These songs come wholly--text and music--from the pen of the composer, Hans Werner Henze. And, as both components took shape in his mind at much the same time, they have an integrity, a mutual responsiveness, that makes them easier on the ear than Henze's idiom often is. The writing is harmonically evasive to the point of irritation. But it's also finely colored and virtuosically capricious, with a strength that manages to be seductive, too. It's also wonderfully well-suited to the pleading, sinewy high tenor of the soloist, Ian Bostridge, who premiered the songs in 1999. He was also their inspiration in that Henze was moved to write them after hearing a Bostridge performance of his Auden Songs. The readings here, accompanied by Bostridge's regular partner, Julius Drake, are immaculate, with all the ethereal beauty of tone and sensitivity to text that first made Bostridge a star. A major release in the contemporary music catalog, and with potential appeal even to those who think the contemporary world isn't their patch. --Michael White

Customer Reviews:

Snap up the used copies of this important disk. How it is out of print is beyond me........2005-11-29

How this disk can be out of print is beyond me. Hans Werner Henze is an outstanding modern composer and the songs on this disk are quite important. More than that, the first six songs are performed by Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake for whom they were written and to whom they are dedicated. The last three are settings of poems by W.H. Auden. Bostridge sang them and Drake played them so wonderfully that Henze was inspired to write the first six songs for them.

The "Six Songs from the Arabian" are really mostly lyrics from Henze that are grounded in what Henze calls an occidento-oriental sensibility. Some of the lyrics are taken from a few lines of Goethe's "Walpurgisnacht", and a Rueckert translation of Hafiz, but these are the exception. All of the songs are on the longer side: five to nine minutes, but have such a wide range of expression within each song that each seems like a contained short song cyle. While it is hard to capture all of the songs without sharing all of their lyrics, perhaps number three, "Sunrise" can give you an idea.

The last half reads:

Night's animals seek out their haunts.

A mule cries out
And cormorants, startled, take wing.
A rustling within the bushes - oh, there are animals in flight!
Lava pours from the volcanoes.
The dawn has become surging breakers:
The whole sky is now ready for the hero's grand entrance.
The aureole blooms
(at its edges are silvery stones)
till suddenly, when one no longer expects it, from the depths of the east,
Helios rises, the ceaselessly burgeoning orb of the world!

All thrown themselves to the ground, hide their eyes and give thanks for the new day's rays in its glory.

Pretty neat stuff and when you hear it sung, it is especially effective and the piano accompaniment is wonderfully supportive of what the singer is doing without being traditional in any way.

The first six songs are in German and the Auden songs are in English. The Auden songs are also well set. Henze did two operas to librettos by Auden and Kallman: "Elegy for Young Lovers" (1961) and "The Bassarids" (1965) so he was quite comfortable with they way Auden used language and it shows in these three songs.

I am a huge fan of Bostridge's singing and Drake's playing. Hearing them perform an Schubert here in an Ann Arbor was one of the great recitals I have ever heard. This recording of these songs also demonstrate their mutual artistry and the amazing breadth of their expression and prowess.

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