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Gottfried Schneider Born at Badgastein into a German-Austrian family of musicians, the violinist Gottfried Schneider made his first appearance as a soloist at the age of eleven. He studied in Salzburg, and then in Munich, Berne and New York, with – Second on Shakespearean Characters for (1978-79) HENZE Otto Büchner, Max Rostal and Ivan Galamian respectively. He won prizes in major international competitions, including the Carl Flesch in and Jeunesses musicales in Belgrade, and after winning the Busch Brothers 1 Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Marcia, non troppo funebre – Sempre incalzando) 5:49 Prize he was invited by Rudolf Serkin to his Marlboro Festival. He has continued to enjoy a career of great 2 Bottom’s Dream (Adagietto, con comodo – Adagio) 4:26 Guitar Music • 1 distinction and has done much to bring to light, in his recordings, unjustly forgotten works and the compositions of 3 Mad Lady Macbeth (Fiercely – Meno mosso – Più mosso – Tempo 1 – contemporary . Allegretto – Andante con moto – Gavotta – Molto irrequieto – Gavotta – Franz Halász, Guitar Sophia Reuter Largo – Con pathos – With noisy vulgarity) 8:38 Sophia Reuter, born in Dresden, comes from a family with a long musical tradition. Her father is a Colin Balzer, • Débora Halász, conductor and grandfather Fritz Reuter was a . At the age of five she began taking lessons from Drei Fragmente nach Hölderlin Klaus Hertel at the Mendelssohn Musikhochschule, and later studied with Peter Tietze in . At the age (Three Fragments from Hölderlin) for Voice and Guitar (1958) of ten she was the youngest participant and prize winner at the Leipzig Competition, and in Gottfried Schneider, Violin • Sophia Reuter, Viola 1988 won first prize at the music competition in . From 1989 to 1993 she studied with Alberto Lysy and 4 I. In lieblicher Bläue 4:07 at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad. Since then she has performed in many of 5 II. Möcht ich ein Komet sein? 3:26 Sebastian Hess, • Karsten Nagel, the major music centres in the world. Playing both the violin and viola, she has participated in various chamber 6 III. Wenn einer in den Spiegel siehet 2:50 music festivals in Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Argentina and the Far East, often together with colleagues of the highest distinction. Since 1997 she has held a position as professor at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad, also teaching at the Salzburg Mozarteum. She has on several occasions played as a Drei Tentos für Gitarre (Three Attempts) (1958) member of the Orchestra and the . From 2003-2004 she led the viola section of the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and from January 2006 has served as principal viola with the 7 I. Tranquillamente 2:10 Duisburger Philharmoniker (Deutsche Oper am Rhein). 8 II. Allegro rubato 1:17 9 III. Lento 2:07 Sebastian Hess Born in Munich in 1971, the cellist Sebastian Hess studied at the music academies in Würzburg and Munich with Selbst- und Zwiegespräche (Monologues and Dialogues) (1984-85) Julius Berger and Helmar Steihler, before studying musicology at Munich University. From 1990 to 1994 he was – Trio for Viola, Guitar and Piano among the pupils of William Pleeth in London and in 1997 was one of the few pupils of . His musical career has ranged from historical performance on the baroque cello to the major elements of the classical 0 Andante cantabile 12:22 and romantic repertoire, and collaboration with contemporary composers and leading colleagues. He has appeared as a soloist and recitalist in festivals and other engagements throughout Europe and in the Far East. Neue Volkslieder und Hirtengesänge (New Folk Songs and Shepherd’s Melodies) Karsten Nagel for Bassoon, Guitar and (1983-96) Karsten Nagel was born in Vilseck in 1964 and began his study of the bassoon at the age of fifteen with Walter Urbach at the Nuremberg Meistersinger Conservatory. Three years later he was appointed first bassoon in the ! Pastorale 2:32 Nuremberg Philharmonic Orchestra, completing his training at the Foundation in Berlin. In @ Morgenlied 0:54 1990 he moved to the Bavarian State in Munich, where he has served for some eleven years as principal # Ballade 2:43 bassoon in the Bavarian State Orchestra. Since 1994 he has taught at the Munich Musikhochschule and since 1996 $ Tanz 1:14 at the Nuremberg Meistersinger Conservatory, becoming professor of bassoon in 2001 at the Nuremberg-Augsburg % Rezitativ 0:44 Musikhochschule. He has been the recipient of a number of prizes and awards at home and abroad, gives regular ^ master-classes, and serves as woodwind adviser to the Bavarian Youth Orchestra. Abendlied 3:06 & Ausklang 1:29

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Hans Werner Henze (b. 1926) Henze draws us into her unstable state of mind, bringing between the instruments in the manner of its title. In his Franz Halász Guitar Music • 1 motivic ideas back a half step higher to depict Lady performance directions Henze stipulates that each of the The American-born German guitarist Franz Halász is among the most outstanding artists in his field. He began his Macbeth’s rising hysteria. three instrumentalists may play their part as a solo as career in 1993, winning first prizes at the Andrés Segovia Competition in and the Seto Ohashi Competition in There can be few other living composers who have had 1970s for a number of more private projects, including This second sonata was first performed in Brussels well as in combination with one another. In this Japan. A guest performer at major festivals and events such as the Rose Augustine Series in New York, the Toru such remarkable success with an extraordinary quantity three string quartets, and his two Shakespearean themed in 1980 by Reinbert Evers. performance there are six sections: piano, viola and Takemitsu Memorial Concert in Tokyo, and in Germany the Kissinger Sommer, Brandenburgische of music in all genres. A brief glance at Henze’s guitar . The three Hölderlin settings form part of what may guitar alone, followed by two duets and a final trio. In Sommerkonzerte and Mecklenburg Vorpommern, and in England, Portugal, Brazil and elsewhere, he has also catalogue outlines a formidable series of , This Second Sonata on Shakespearean Characters be likened to an extended song-cycle that Henze called returning to goal-orientated Henze allies shared the stage with well known artists such as Siegfried Jerusalem, Patrick Gallois, Robert Aitken, Alban Gerhard stage works (both opera and ballet), and dates from 1978-79 and, like the first from three years Kammermusik 1958, a work for tenor and guitar soloists himself with German romanticism in this work’s and Boris Pergamenschikov among others. He is professor at the Nuremberg Musikhochschule and offers master- quartets, and it is on these large-scale and solidly earlier, was prompted by the distinguished guitarist with eight other instruments setting Friedrich rhapsodic style and rich textures. classes at prestigious institutes all over the world, including the Manhattan School of Music, the San Francisco Teutonic structures, often unconventional in formal Julian Bream. The three character studies from the Hölderlin’s In lieblicher Bläue (In lovely blueness). Henze uses Styrian (Austrian) peasant songs as the Conservatory, the Academy of Music in Oslo, and São Paulo University. His many recordings for BIS include design and personal in their approach, that his stature as second group complete a cycle of nine solo guitar pieces Written following a visit to Greece (the inspiration also creative source for his Neue Volkslieder und among others the complete guitar music by Joaquín Turina and Toru Takemitsu. one of Europe’s foremost composers rests. (six in the first set) that begin with a mad king and end for Hölderlin’s poem), the work was commissioned by Hirtengesänge (New Folk Songs and Shepherds’ Born in Westphalia in 1926 Henze received his with a mad queen. Henze makes virtuosic demands in North German Radio. Its virtuosic vocal writing, Melodies), scoring for a folk-like combination of Colin Balzer earliest musical training against the background of all of these works, extending the boundaries of guitar covering a range of two octaves, is largely atonal and bassoon (shepherd’s shawm), guitar and string trio. The gifted young Canadian lyric tenor Colin Balzer is fast becoming one of the most sought-after concert soloists of , becoming a reluctant recruit into the Hitler technique in a comprehensive survey that brings to expressionistic; its musical language recalling his brief These seven movements from 1996 are derived from his his generation, with a busy schedule of international engagements. Now based in Germany and with a repertoire Youth movement and, in 1944, serving as a radio mind, on a different level, the great keyboard works by preoccupation with at . By musical play Oedipus der Tyrann (King Oedipus) of ranging from Monteverdi to Penderecki, he has enjoyed critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, working with operator with a Panzer division. After the war he Bach or Beethoven. Indeed, when Julian Bream first deliberate contrast (Henze musically illustrates the 1983 that was later withdrawn. such conductors as Helmuth Rilling, Simone Young, Simon Preston, Yoav Talmi, Gabriel Chmura and Christof returned to his formal education, studying first with approached Henze for a solo guitar work he had polarity between the world of ancient Greece and the In the opening Pastorale bassoon and guitar take on Perick, performing with the Hungarian and Polish National Radio Orchestras, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Oregon, Wolfgang Fortner, and later with René Leibowitz in jokingly suggested a piece on the scale of Beethoven’s modern world), the writing for the guitar is far less the rôles of the peasant musicians and play a total of five Vancouver and Québec Symphonies, among many others. Particularly esteemed as a recitalist, he has been welcomed Darmstadt and , where he encountered serial Hammerklavier Sonata. complex: in the first, the accompaniment looks back varied verses, each one concluding with a quietly at London’s (accompanied by Graham Johnson), the Britten Festival in , Alice Tully Hall at techniques. It was, however, the music of Stravinsky, In Sir Andrew Aguecheek Henze uses a kind of across the centuries to a Dowland -song, the second echoing dialogue between the two instruments, with the the Lincoln Center, the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, the Wratislavia Cantans in Poland, and at the Hindemith and Schoenberg that Henze turned to as additive variation form to portray the gullible and is more contemporary and chromatic, while the third string trio providing an energetic accompaniment. The Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden. Recordings to date include Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch and Eisler and Henze models for his earliest neo-classical pieces whose innate melancholy knight from Twelfth Night who was ‘adored borrows from to whom the work is Styrian folk material is suggested through rhythmic and song anthologies. A prizewinner of Holland’s ‘s-Hertogenbosch Competition, the London Wigmore Hall Song lyricism was to mark his oeuvre across a sixty-year once’. A minor key march, pedestrian in character and dedicated. melodic fragments. Competition, and Stuttgart Hugo Wolf Competition, he holds the rare distinction of earning the Gold Medal at the composing career. Both his Violin and First suggestive perhaps both of a naïve energy and Henze’s Drei Tentos, three , like the After the brief and melancholy Morgenlied there Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau with the highest score in 25 years. Master-classes have been with such of 1947 quickly established Henze as determined will, frames passages, ritornello-like, in Drei Fragmente nach Hölderlin were also originally follows a more energetic Ballade in which constantly artists as Philip Langridge, Helmut Deutsch, Robert Tear, Elly Ameling, Brigitte Fassbaender, Rudolph Jansen, and Germany’s answer to the musical vacuum resulting which the recurring breakdown of mirrors Sir part of Kammermusik 1958 and are short, very changing metre (heard first in the guitar) provides a Christoph Prégardien. Born in British Columbia, he received his formal musical training at the University of British from the aftermath of Nazism. Andrew’s own failure in life. Appoggiaturas and sweet- approachable pieces that feature in every professional rhythmic landscape to the melodic counterpoint that Columbia with David Meek and at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg/Augsburg with Edith Wiens. Unhappy with post war social attitudes and sounding chords point to his gentle nature. guitarist’s repertoire. The first piece, essentially lyrical, unfolds as each instrument enters. There is an extended ashamed of Germany’s recent past he moved to Italy in This gentle mood is carried over in Bottom’s is characterized by a terseness of material based on a cadenza and a concluding reminiscence of the opening. Débora Halász 1953; first to Ischia, then Naples, and eventually settling Dream, (the dream of the simple weaver from A recurring four-note motif, with a high tessitura and a The rustic Tanz gives prominence to bassoon and guitar Praised by critics in her début recordings, the Brazilian Débora Halász is among the leading South American pianists of near Rome. From this southern move a new, sunny Midsummer Night’s Dream) in which the opening thirds dynamic level that rarely rises above pianissimo. The in another lively peasant dance which gives way (as her generation. Winner of the most important competitions in her native country, she made her début with the São radiance filtered into his compositions that generated a convey his serene dream-like state. Melodic second features driving rhythms that propel the semi- does the tonality) to a Rezitativ, featuring just guitar and Paulo State Symphony Orchestra at the age of fifteen. Four years later the Critics Prize (APCA) named her the best sequence of stage works beginning in 1955 with König compactness and counterpoint punctuated by frequent quaver movement forward in the manner of Stravinsky. strings, now of more expressionistic character. A darker soloist of the year for her interpretation of Rachmaninov’s Third . In 1989 she went with a DAAD Hirsch (King Stag) and culminating, ten years later, rests and empty bars create a sense of elasticity and Lyricism returns in the third, this time with melodic mood with dense string textures is found in Abendlied scholarship to Germany, and since then has been invited to many European, South and North American Music with his unparalleled operatic success . pleasant languor. contours of Neapolitan origin. where, once again, the bassoon has a prominent rôle. Festivals and Concert Series. With her husband she established in 1993 the Duo Halász, for guitar and From the late 1960s there followed a series of politically This mood is swept aside by the dramatic motif Selbst und Zwiegespräche (Monologues and Henze concludes his suite with an epilogue - Ausklang – piano/harpsichord, arousing further critical acclaim. She has also partnered musicians such as Lavard Skou Larsen, motivated works (with overtly communist sympathies), beginning the remarkably imaginative and searching Dialogues), a chamber work for viola, guitar and organ where warm thirds from the strings frame a brief Sebastian Hess and Patrick Gallois. Her ambitious recording of the complete piano music of Heitor Villa-Lobos, a that included the ill fated Hamburg premiere of his portrait of Mad Lady Macbeth. The opening malevolent (or piano as recorded here) dates from 1984-1985, the bassoon solo before fading to pianissimo. project of some eight CDs, has been enthusiastically acclaimed by the international press. She has also recorded for oratorio The Raft of the Medusa, the chamber piece El flourish conveys, in just a few notes, her ruthless power period between his two and Das BIS works by Ginastera, Shostakovich and Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Her passion for baroque music led her to a search for Cimarrón and his opera La Cubana. As well as these and volatile mood. In its dissonance, sudden changes of verratene Meer and roughly contemporary with his David Truslove a historically accurate instrument for that repertoire, and she plays a historic copy of a Haas instrument, dated 1734, large-scale ‘public’ works Henze found time in the pace and weight and restless central dance episodes, Seventh Symphony. Henze constructs a dialogue specially made for her. It is on this instrument that she has embarked on the recording of the complete works for harpsichord by the Portuguese baroque composer Carlos Seixas, a co-production between Naxos and Bavarian Radio. 8.557344 2 3 8.557344 4 8.557344 557344 bk Henze US 4/28/06 9:47 AM Page 2

Hans Werner Henze (b. 1926) Henze draws us into her unstable state of mind, bringing between the instruments in the manner of its title. In his Franz Halász Guitar Music • 1 motivic ideas back a half step higher to depict Lady performance directions Henze stipulates that each of the The American-born German guitarist Franz Halász is among the most outstanding artists in his field. He began his Macbeth’s rising hysteria. three instrumentalists may play their part as a solo as career in 1993, winning first prizes at the Andrés Segovia Competition in Spain and the Seto Ohashi Competition in There can be few other living composers who have had 1970s for a number of more private projects, including This second sonata was first performed in Brussels well as in combination with one another. In this Japan. A guest performer at major festivals and events such as the Rose Augustine Series in New York, the Toru such remarkable success with an extraordinary quantity three string quartets, and his two Shakespearean themed in 1980 by Reinbert Evers. performance there are six sections: piano, viola and Takemitsu Memorial Concert in Tokyo, and in Germany the Kissinger Sommer, Brandenburgische of music in all genres. A brief glance at Henze’s guitar sonatas. The three Hölderlin settings form part of what may guitar alone, followed by two duets and a final trio. In Sommerkonzerte and Mecklenburg Vorpommern, and in England, Portugal, Brazil and elsewhere, he has also catalogue outlines a formidable series of symphonies, This Second Sonata on Shakespearean Characters be likened to an extended song-cycle that Henze called returning to goal-orientated harmony Henze allies shared the stage with well known artists such as Siegfried Jerusalem, Patrick Gallois, Robert Aitken, Alban Gerhard stage works (both opera and ballet), concertos and dates from 1978-79 and, like the first from three years Kammermusik 1958, a work for tenor and guitar soloists himself with German romanticism in this work’s and Boris Pergamenschikov among others. He is professor at the Nuremberg Musikhochschule and offers master- quartets, and it is on these large-scale and solidly earlier, was prompted by the distinguished guitarist with eight other instruments setting Friedrich rhapsodic style and rich textures. classes at prestigious institutes all over the world, including the Manhattan School of Music, the San Francisco Teutonic structures, often unconventional in formal Julian Bream. The three character studies from the Hölderlin’s In lieblicher Bläue (In lovely blueness). Henze uses Styrian (Austrian) peasant songs as the Conservatory, the Academy of Music in Oslo, and São Paulo University. His many recordings for BIS include design and personal in their approach, that his stature as second group complete a cycle of nine solo guitar pieces Written following a visit to Greece (the inspiration also creative source for his Neue Volkslieder und among others the complete guitar music by Joaquín Turina and Toru Takemitsu. one of Europe’s foremost composers rests. (six in the first set) that begin with a mad king and end for Hölderlin’s poem), the work was commissioned by Hirtengesänge (New Folk Songs and Shepherds’ Born in Westphalia in 1926 Henze received his with a mad queen. Henze makes virtuosic demands in North German Radio. Its virtuosic vocal writing, Melodies), scoring for a folk-like combination of Colin Balzer earliest musical training against the background of all of these works, extending the boundaries of guitar covering a range of two octaves, is largely atonal and bassoon (shepherd’s shawm), guitar and string trio. The gifted young Canadian lyric tenor Colin Balzer is fast becoming one of the most sought-after concert soloists of Nazism, becoming a reluctant recruit into the Hitler technique in a comprehensive survey that brings to expressionistic; its musical language recalling his brief These seven movements from 1996 are derived from his his generation, with a busy schedule of international engagements. Now based in Germany and with a repertoire Youth movement and, in 1944, serving as a radio mind, on a different level, the great keyboard works by preoccupation with serialism at Darmstadt. By musical play Oedipus der Tyrann (King Oedipus) of ranging from Monteverdi to Penderecki, he has enjoyed critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, working with operator with a Panzer division. After the war he Bach or Beethoven. Indeed, when Julian Bream first deliberate contrast (Henze musically illustrates the 1983 that was later withdrawn. such conductors as Helmuth Rilling, Simone Young, Simon Preston, Yoav Talmi, Gabriel Chmura and Christof returned to his formal education, studying first with approached Henze for a solo guitar work he had polarity between the world of ancient Greece and the In the opening Pastorale bassoon and guitar take on Perick, performing with the Hungarian and Polish National Radio Orchestras, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Oregon, Wolfgang Fortner, and later with René Leibowitz in jokingly suggested a piece on the scale of Beethoven’s modern world), the writing for the guitar is far less the rôles of the peasant musicians and play a total of five Vancouver and Québec Symphonies, among many others. Particularly esteemed as a recitalist, he has been welcomed Darmstadt and Paris, where he encountered serial Hammerklavier Sonata. complex: in the first, the accompaniment looks back varied verses, each one concluding with a quietly at London’s Wigmore Hall (accompanied by Graham Johnson), the Britten Festival in Aldeburgh, Alice Tully Hall at techniques. It was, however, the music of Stravinsky, In Sir Andrew Aguecheek Henze uses a kind of across the centuries to a Dowland lute-song, the second echoing dialogue between the two instruments, with the the Lincoln Center, the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, the Wratislavia Cantans in Poland, and at the Hindemith and Schoenberg that Henze turned to as additive variation form to portray the gullible and is more contemporary and chromatic, while the third string trio providing an energetic accompaniment. The Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden. Recordings to date include Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch and Eisler and Henze models for his earliest neo-classical pieces whose innate melancholy knight from Twelfth Night who was ‘adored borrows from Benjamin Britten to whom the work is Styrian folk material is suggested through rhythmic and song anthologies. A prizewinner of Holland’s ‘s-Hertogenbosch Competition, the London Wigmore Hall Song lyricism was to mark his oeuvre across a sixty-year once’. A minor key march, pedestrian in character and dedicated. melodic fragments. Competition, and Stuttgart Hugo Wolf Competition, he holds the rare distinction of earning the Gold Medal at the composing career. Both his and First suggestive perhaps both of a naïve energy and Henze’s Drei Tentos, three intermezzos, like the After the brief and melancholy Morgenlied there Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau with the highest score in 25 years. Master-classes have been with such Symphony of 1947 quickly established Henze as determined will, frames passages, ritornello-like, in Drei Fragmente nach Hölderlin were also originally follows a more energetic Ballade in which constantly artists as Philip Langridge, Helmut Deutsch, Robert Tear, Elly Ameling, Brigitte Fassbaender, Rudolph Jansen, and Germany’s answer to the musical vacuum resulting which the recurring breakdown of tonality mirrors Sir part of Kammermusik 1958 and are short, very changing metre (heard first in the guitar) provides a Christoph Prégardien. Born in British Columbia, he received his formal musical training at the University of British from the aftermath of Nazism. Andrew’s own failure in life. Appoggiaturas and sweet- approachable pieces that feature in every professional rhythmic landscape to the melodic counterpoint that Columbia with David Meek and at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg/Augsburg with Edith Wiens. Unhappy with post war social attitudes and sounding chords point to his gentle nature. guitarist’s repertoire. The first piece, essentially lyrical, unfolds as each instrument enters. There is an extended ashamed of Germany’s recent past he moved to Italy in This gentle mood is carried over in Bottom’s is characterized by a terseness of material based on a cadenza and a concluding reminiscence of the opening. Débora Halász 1953; first to Ischia, then Naples, and eventually settling Dream, (the dream of the simple weaver from A recurring four-note motif, with a high tessitura and a The rustic Tanz gives prominence to bassoon and guitar Praised by critics in her début recordings, the Brazilian Débora Halász is among the leading South American pianists of near Rome. From this southern move a new, sunny Midsummer Night’s Dream) in which the opening thirds dynamic level that rarely rises above pianissimo. The in another lively peasant dance which gives way (as her generation. Winner of the most important competitions in her native country, she made her début with the São radiance filtered into his compositions that generated a convey his serene dream-like state. Melodic second features driving rhythms that propel the semi- does the tonality) to a Rezitativ, featuring just guitar and Paulo State Symphony Orchestra at the age of fifteen. Four years later the Critics Prize (APCA) named her the best sequence of stage works beginning in 1955 with König compactness and counterpoint punctuated by frequent quaver movement forward in the manner of Stravinsky. strings, now of more expressionistic character. A darker soloist of the year for her interpretation of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto. In 1989 she went with a DAAD Hirsch (King Stag) and culminating, ten years later, rests and empty bars create a sense of elasticity and Lyricism returns in the third, this time with melodic mood with dense string textures is found in Abendlied scholarship to Germany, and since then has been invited to many European, South and North American Music with his unparalleled operatic success The Bassarids. pleasant languor. contours of Neapolitan origin. where, once again, the bassoon has a prominent rôle. Festivals and Concert Series. With her husband she established in 1993 the Duo Halász, for guitar and From the late 1960s there followed a series of politically This mood is swept aside by the dramatic motif Selbst und Zwiegespräche (Monologues and Henze concludes his suite with an epilogue - Ausklang – piano/harpsichord, arousing further critical acclaim. She has also partnered musicians such as Lavard Skou Larsen, motivated works (with overtly communist sympathies), beginning the remarkably imaginative and searching Dialogues), a chamber work for viola, guitar and organ where warm thirds from the strings frame a brief Sebastian Hess and Patrick Gallois. Her ambitious recording of the complete piano music of Heitor Villa-Lobos, a that included the ill fated Hamburg premiere of his portrait of Mad Lady Macbeth. The opening malevolent (or piano as recorded here) dates from 1984-1985, the bassoon solo before fading to pianissimo. project of some eight CDs, has been enthusiastically acclaimed by the international press. She has also recorded for oratorio The Raft of the Medusa, the chamber piece El flourish conveys, in just a few notes, her ruthless power period between his two operas The English Cat and Das BIS works by Ginastera, Shostakovich and Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Her passion for baroque music led her to a search for Cimarrón and his opera La Cubana. As well as these and volatile mood. In its dissonance, sudden changes of verratene Meer and roughly contemporary with his David Truslove a historically accurate instrument for that repertoire, and she plays a historic copy of a Haas instrument, dated 1734, large-scale ‘public’ works Henze found time in the pace and weight and restless central dance episodes, Seventh Symphony. Henze constructs a dialogue specially made for her. It is on this instrument that she has embarked on the recording of the complete works for harpsichord by the Portuguese baroque composer Carlos Seixas, a co-production between Naxos and Bavarian Radio. 8.557344 2 3 8.557344 4 8.557344 557344 bk Henze US 4/28/06 9:47 AM Page 2

Hans Werner Henze (b. 1926) Henze draws us into her unstable state of mind, bringing between the instruments in the manner of its title. In his Franz Halász Guitar Music • 1 motivic ideas back a half step higher to depict Lady performance directions Henze stipulates that each of the The American-born German guitarist Franz Halász is among the most outstanding artists in his field. He began his Macbeth’s rising hysteria. three instrumentalists may play their part as a solo as career in 1993, winning first prizes at the Andrés Segovia Competition in Spain and the Seto Ohashi Competition in There can be few other living composers who have had 1970s for a number of more private projects, including This second sonata was first performed in Brussels well as in combination with one another. In this Japan. A guest performer at major festivals and events such as the Rose Augustine Series in New York, the Toru such remarkable success with an extraordinary quantity three string quartets, and his two Shakespearean themed in 1980 by Reinbert Evers. performance there are six sections: piano, viola and Takemitsu Memorial Concert in Tokyo, and in Germany the Kissinger Sommer, Brandenburgische of music in all genres. A brief glance at Henze’s guitar sonatas. The three Hölderlin settings form part of what may guitar alone, followed by two duets and a final trio. In Sommerkonzerte and Mecklenburg Vorpommern, and in England, Portugal, Brazil and elsewhere, he has also catalogue outlines a formidable series of symphonies, This Second Sonata on Shakespearean Characters be likened to an extended song-cycle that Henze called returning to goal-orientated harmony Henze allies shared the stage with well known artists such as Siegfried Jerusalem, Patrick Gallois, Robert Aitken, Alban Gerhard stage works (both opera and ballet), concertos and dates from 1978-79 and, like the first from three years Kammermusik 1958, a work for tenor and guitar soloists himself with German romanticism in this work’s and Boris Pergamenschikov among others. He is professor at the Nuremberg Musikhochschule and offers master- quartets, and it is on these large-scale and solidly earlier, was prompted by the distinguished guitarist with eight other instruments setting Friedrich rhapsodic style and rich textures. classes at prestigious institutes all over the world, including the Manhattan School of Music, the San Francisco Teutonic structures, often unconventional in formal Julian Bream. The three character studies from the Hölderlin’s In lieblicher Bläue (In lovely blueness). Henze uses Styrian (Austrian) peasant songs as the Conservatory, the Academy of Music in Oslo, and São Paulo University. His many recordings for BIS include design and personal in their approach, that his stature as second group complete a cycle of nine solo guitar pieces Written following a visit to Greece (the inspiration also creative source for his Neue Volkslieder und among others the complete guitar music by Joaquín Turina and Toru Takemitsu. one of Europe’s foremost composers rests. (six in the first set) that begin with a mad king and end for Hölderlin’s poem), the work was commissioned by Hirtengesänge (New Folk Songs and Shepherds’ Born in Westphalia in 1926 Henze received his with a mad queen. Henze makes virtuosic demands in North German Radio. Its virtuosic vocal writing, Melodies), scoring for a folk-like combination of Colin Balzer earliest musical training against the background of all of these works, extending the boundaries of guitar covering a range of two octaves, is largely atonal and bassoon (shepherd’s shawm), guitar and string trio. The gifted young Canadian lyric tenor Colin Balzer is fast becoming one of the most sought-after concert soloists of Nazism, becoming a reluctant recruit into the Hitler technique in a comprehensive survey that brings to expressionistic; its musical language recalling his brief These seven movements from 1996 are derived from his his generation, with a busy schedule of international engagements. Now based in Germany and with a repertoire Youth movement and, in 1944, serving as a radio mind, on a different level, the great keyboard works by preoccupation with serialism at Darmstadt. By musical play Oedipus der Tyrann (King Oedipus) of ranging from Monteverdi to Penderecki, he has enjoyed critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, working with operator with a Panzer division. After the war he Bach or Beethoven. Indeed, when Julian Bream first deliberate contrast (Henze musically illustrates the 1983 that was later withdrawn. such conductors as Helmuth Rilling, Simone Young, Simon Preston, Yoav Talmi, Gabriel Chmura and Christof returned to his formal education, studying first with approached Henze for a solo guitar work he had polarity between the world of ancient Greece and the In the opening Pastorale bassoon and guitar take on Perick, performing with the Hungarian and Polish National Radio Orchestras, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Oregon, Wolfgang Fortner, and later with René Leibowitz in jokingly suggested a piece on the scale of Beethoven’s modern world), the writing for the guitar is far less the rôles of the peasant musicians and play a total of five Vancouver and Québec Symphonies, among many others. Particularly esteemed as a recitalist, he has been welcomed Darmstadt and Paris, where he encountered serial Hammerklavier Sonata. complex: in the first, the accompaniment looks back varied verses, each one concluding with a quietly at London’s Wigmore Hall (accompanied by Graham Johnson), the Britten Festival in Aldeburgh, Alice Tully Hall at techniques. It was, however, the music of Stravinsky, In Sir Andrew Aguecheek Henze uses a kind of across the centuries to a Dowland lute-song, the second echoing dialogue between the two instruments, with the the Lincoln Center, the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, the Wratislavia Cantans in Poland, and at the Hindemith and Schoenberg that Henze turned to as additive variation form to portray the gullible and is more contemporary and chromatic, while the third string trio providing an energetic accompaniment. The Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden. Recordings to date include Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch and Eisler and Henze models for his earliest neo-classical pieces whose innate melancholy knight from Twelfth Night who was ‘adored borrows from Benjamin Britten to whom the work is Styrian folk material is suggested through rhythmic and song anthologies. A prizewinner of Holland’s ‘s-Hertogenbosch Competition, the London Wigmore Hall Song lyricism was to mark his oeuvre across a sixty-year once’. A minor key march, pedestrian in character and dedicated. melodic fragments. Competition, and Stuttgart Hugo Wolf Competition, he holds the rare distinction of earning the Gold Medal at the composing career. Both his Violin Concerto and First suggestive perhaps both of a naïve energy and Henze’s Drei Tentos, three intermezzos, like the After the brief and melancholy Morgenlied there Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau with the highest score in 25 years. Master-classes have been with such Symphony of 1947 quickly established Henze as determined will, frames passages, ritornello-like, in Drei Fragmente nach Hölderlin were also originally follows a more energetic Ballade in which constantly artists as Philip Langridge, Helmut Deutsch, Robert Tear, Elly Ameling, Brigitte Fassbaender, Rudolph Jansen, and Germany’s answer to the musical vacuum resulting which the recurring breakdown of tonality mirrors Sir part of Kammermusik 1958 and are short, very changing metre (heard first in the guitar) provides a Christoph Prégardien. Born in British Columbia, he received his formal musical training at the University of British from the aftermath of Nazism. Andrew’s own failure in life. Appoggiaturas and sweet- approachable pieces that feature in every professional rhythmic landscape to the melodic counterpoint that Columbia with David Meek and at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg/Augsburg with Edith Wiens. Unhappy with post war social attitudes and sounding chords point to his gentle nature. guitarist’s repertoire. The first piece, essentially lyrical, unfolds as each instrument enters. There is an extended ashamed of Germany’s recent past he moved to Italy in This gentle mood is carried over in Bottom’s is characterized by a terseness of material based on a cadenza and a concluding reminiscence of the opening. Débora Halász 1953; first to Ischia, then Naples, and eventually settling Dream, (the dream of the simple weaver from A recurring four-note motif, with a high tessitura and a The rustic Tanz gives prominence to bassoon and guitar Praised by critics in her début recordings, the Brazilian Débora Halász is among the leading South American pianists of near Rome. From this southern move a new, sunny Midsummer Night’s Dream) in which the opening thirds dynamic level that rarely rises above pianissimo. The in another lively peasant dance which gives way (as her generation. Winner of the most important competitions in her native country, she made her début with the São radiance filtered into his compositions that generated a convey his serene dream-like state. Melodic second features driving rhythms that propel the semi- does the tonality) to a Rezitativ, featuring just guitar and Paulo State Symphony Orchestra at the age of fifteen. Four years later the Critics Prize (APCA) named her the best sequence of stage works beginning in 1955 with König compactness and counterpoint punctuated by frequent quaver movement forward in the manner of Stravinsky. strings, now of more expressionistic character. A darker soloist of the year for her interpretation of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto. In 1989 she went with a DAAD Hirsch (King Stag) and culminating, ten years later, rests and empty bars create a sense of elasticity and Lyricism returns in the third, this time with melodic mood with dense string textures is found in Abendlied scholarship to Germany, and since then has been invited to many European, South and North American Music with his unparalleled operatic success The Bassarids. pleasant languor. contours of Neapolitan origin. where, once again, the bassoon has a prominent rôle. Festivals and Concert Series. With her husband she established in 1993 the Duo Halász, for guitar and From the late 1960s there followed a series of politically This mood is swept aside by the dramatic motif Selbst und Zwiegespräche (Monologues and Henze concludes his suite with an epilogue - Ausklang – piano/harpsichord, arousing further critical acclaim. She has also partnered musicians such as Lavard Skou Larsen, motivated works (with overtly communist sympathies), beginning the remarkably imaginative and searching Dialogues), a chamber work for viola, guitar and organ where warm thirds from the strings frame a brief Sebastian Hess and Patrick Gallois. Her ambitious recording of the complete piano music of Heitor Villa-Lobos, a that included the ill fated Hamburg premiere of his portrait of Mad Lady Macbeth. The opening malevolent (or piano as recorded here) dates from 1984-1985, the bassoon solo before fading to pianissimo. project of some eight CDs, has been enthusiastically acclaimed by the international press. She has also recorded for oratorio The Raft of the Medusa, the chamber piece El flourish conveys, in just a few notes, her ruthless power period between his two operas The English Cat and Das BIS works by Ginastera, Shostakovich and Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Her passion for baroque music led her to a search for Cimarrón and his opera La Cubana. As well as these and volatile mood. In its dissonance, sudden changes of verratene Meer and roughly contemporary with his David Truslove a historically accurate instrument for that repertoire, and she plays a historic copy of a Haas instrument, dated 1734, large-scale ‘public’ works Henze found time in the pace and weight and restless central dance episodes, Seventh Symphony. Henze constructs a dialogue specially made for her. It is on this instrument that she has embarked on the recording of the complete works for harpsichord by the Portuguese baroque composer Carlos Seixas, a co-production between Naxos and Bavarian Radio. 8.557344 2 3 8.557344 4 8.557344 557344 bk Henze US 4/28/06 9:47 AM Page 5

Gottfried Schneider Born at Badgastein into a German-Austrian family of musicians, the violinist Gottfried Schneider made his first Royal Winter Music appearance as a soloist at the age of eleven. He studied in Salzburg, and then in Munich, Berne and New York, with – Second Sonata on Shakespearean Characters for Guitar (1978-79) HENZE Otto Büchner, Max Rostal and Ivan Galamian respectively. He won prizes in major international competitions, including the Carl Flesch in London and Jeunesses musicales in Belgrade, and after winning the Busch Brothers 1 Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Marcia, non troppo funebre – Sempre incalzando) 5:49 Prize he was invited by Rudolf Serkin to his Marlboro Festival. He has continued to enjoy a career of great 2 Bottom’s Dream (Adagietto, con comodo – Adagio) 4:26 Guitar Music • 1 distinction and has done much to bring to light, in his recordings, unjustly forgotten works and the compositions of 3 Mad Lady Macbeth (Fiercely – Meno mosso – Più mosso – Tempo 1 – contemporary composers. Allegretto – Andante con moto – Gavotta – Molto irrequieto – Gavotta – Franz Halász, Guitar Sophia Reuter Largo – Con pathos – With noisy vulgarity) 8:38 Sophia Reuter, born in Dresden, comes from a family with a long musical tradition. Her father Rolf Reuter is a Colin Balzer, Tenor • Débora Halász, Piano conductor and grandfather Fritz Reuter was a composer. At the age of five she began taking violin lessons from Drei Fragmente nach Hölderlin Klaus Hertel at the Leipzig Mendelssohn Musikhochschule, and later studied with Peter Tietze in Berlin. At the age (Three Fragments from Hölderlin) for Voice and Guitar (1958) of ten she was the youngest participant and prize winner at the Leipzig Johann Sebastian Bach Competition, and in Gottfried Schneider, Violin • Sophia Reuter, Viola 1988 won first prize at the music competition in Weimar. From 1989 to 1993 she studied with Alberto Lysy and 4 I. In lieblicher Bläue 4:07 Yehudi Menuhin at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad. Since then she has performed in many of 5 II. Möcht ich ein Komet sein? 3:26 Sebastian Hess, Cello • Karsten Nagel, Bassoon the major music centres in the world. Playing both the violin and viola, she has participated in various chamber 6 III. Wenn einer in den Spiegel siehet 2:50 music festivals in Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Argentina and the Far East, often together with colleagues of the highest distinction. Since 1997 she has held a position as professor at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad, also teaching at the Salzburg Mozarteum. She has on several occasions played as a Drei Tentos für Gitarre (Three Attempts) (1958) member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. From 2003-2004 she led the viola section of the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and from January 2006 has served as principal viola with the 7 I. Tranquillamente 2:10 Duisburger Philharmoniker (Deutsche Oper am Rhein). 8 II. Allegro rubato 1:17 9 III. Lento 2:07 Sebastian Hess Born in Munich in 1971, the cellist Sebastian Hess studied at the music academies in Würzburg and Munich with Selbst- und Zwiegespräche (Monologues and Dialogues) (1984-85) Julius Berger and Helmar Steihler, before studying musicology at Munich University. From 1990 to 1994 he was – Trio for Viola, Guitar and Piano among the pupils of William Pleeth in London and in 1997 was one of the few pupils of Mstislav Rostropovich. His musical career has ranged from historical performance on the baroque cello to the major elements of the classical 0 Andante cantabile 12:22 and romantic repertoire, and collaboration with contemporary composers and leading colleagues. He has appeared as a soloist and recitalist in festivals and other engagements throughout Europe and in the Far East. Neue Volkslieder und Hirtengesänge (New Folk Songs and Shepherd’s Melodies) Karsten Nagel for Bassoon, Guitar and String Trio (1983-96) Karsten Nagel was born in Vilseck in 1964 and began his study of the bassoon at the age of fifteen with Walter Urbach at the Nuremberg Meistersinger Conservatory. Three years later he was appointed first bassoon in the ! Pastorale 2:32 Nuremberg Philharmonic Orchestra, completing his training at the Herbert von Karajan Foundation in Berlin. In @ Morgenlied 0:54 1990 he moved to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where he has served for some eleven years as principal # Ballade 2:43 bassoon in the Bavarian State Orchestra. Since 1994 he has taught at the Munich Musikhochschule and since 1996 $ Tanz 1:14 at the Nuremberg Meistersinger Conservatory, becoming professor of bassoon in 2001 at the Nuremberg-Augsburg % Rezitativ 0:44 Musikhochschule. He has been the recipient of a number of prizes and awards at home and abroad, gives regular ^ master-classes, and serves as woodwind adviser to the Bavarian Youth Orchestra. Abendlied 3:06 & Ausklang 1:29

8.557344 5 6 8.557344 557344 bk Henze US 4/28/06 9:47 AM Page 5

Gottfried Schneider Born at Badgastein into a German-Austrian family of musicians, the violinist Gottfried Schneider made his first Royal Winter Music appearance as a soloist at the age of eleven. He studied in Salzburg, and then in Munich, Berne and New York, with – Second Sonata on Shakespearean Characters for Guitar (1978-79) HENZE Otto Büchner, Max Rostal and Ivan Galamian respectively. He won prizes in major international competitions, including the Carl Flesch in London and Jeunesses musicales in Belgrade, and after winning the Busch Brothers 1 Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Marcia, non troppo funebre – Sempre incalzando) 5:49 Prize he was invited by Rudolf Serkin to his Marlboro Festival. He has continued to enjoy a career of great 2 Bottom’s Dream (Adagietto, con comodo – Adagio) 4:26 Guitar Music • 1 distinction and has done much to bring to light, in his recordings, unjustly forgotten works and the compositions of 3 Mad Lady Macbeth (Fiercely – Meno mosso – Più mosso – Tempo 1 – contemporary composers. Allegretto – Andante con moto – Gavotta – Molto irrequieto – Gavotta – Franz Halász, Guitar Sophia Reuter Largo – Con pathos – With noisy vulgarity) 8:38 Sophia Reuter, born in Dresden, comes from a family with a long musical tradition. Her father Rolf Reuter is a Colin Balzer, Tenor • Débora Halász, Piano conductor and grandfather Fritz Reuter was a composer. At the age of five she began taking violin lessons from Drei Fragmente nach Hölderlin Klaus Hertel at the Leipzig Mendelssohn Musikhochschule, and later studied with Peter Tietze in Berlin. At the age (Three Fragments from Hölderlin) for Voice and Guitar (1958) of ten she was the youngest participant and prize winner at the Leipzig Johann Sebastian Bach Competition, and in Gottfried Schneider, Violin • Sophia Reuter, Viola 1988 won first prize at the music competition in Weimar. From 1989 to 1993 she studied with Alberto Lysy and 4 I. In lieblicher Bläue 4:07 Yehudi Menuhin at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad. Since then she has performed in many of 5 II. Möcht ich ein Komet sein? 3:26 Sebastian Hess, Cello • Karsten Nagel, Bassoon the major music centres in the world. Playing both the violin and viola, she has participated in various chamber 6 III. Wenn einer in den Spiegel siehet 2:50 music festivals in Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Argentina and the Far East, often together with colleagues of the highest distinction. Since 1997 she has held a position as professor at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad, also teaching at the Salzburg Mozarteum. She has on several occasions played as a Drei Tentos für Gitarre (Three Attempts) (1958) member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. From 2003-2004 she led the viola section of the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and from January 2006 has served as principal viola with the 7 I. Tranquillamente 2:10 Duisburger Philharmoniker (Deutsche Oper am Rhein). 8 II. Allegro rubato 1:17 9 III. Lento 2:07 Sebastian Hess Born in Munich in 1971, the cellist Sebastian Hess studied at the music academies in Würzburg and Munich with Selbst- und Zwiegespräche (Monologues and Dialogues) (1984-85) Julius Berger and Helmar Steihler, before studying musicology at Munich University. From 1990 to 1994 he was – Trio for Viola, Guitar and Piano among the pupils of William Pleeth in London and in 1997 was one of the few pupils of Mstislav Rostropovich. His musical career has ranged from historical performance on the baroque cello to the major elements of the classical 0 Andante cantabile 12:22 and romantic repertoire, and collaboration with contemporary composers and leading colleagues. He has appeared as a soloist and recitalist in festivals and other engagements throughout Europe and in the Far East. Neue Volkslieder und Hirtengesänge (New Folk Songs and Shepherd’s Melodies) Karsten Nagel for Bassoon, Guitar and String Trio (1983-96) Karsten Nagel was born in Vilseck in 1964 and began his study of the bassoon at the age of fifteen with Walter Urbach at the Nuremberg Meistersinger Conservatory. Three years later he was appointed first bassoon in the ! Pastorale 2:32 Nuremberg Philharmonic Orchestra, completing his training at the Herbert von Karajan Foundation in Berlin. In @ Morgenlied 0:54 1990 he moved to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where he has served for some eleven years as principal # Ballade 2:43 bassoon in the Bavarian State Orchestra. Since 1994 he has taught at the Munich Musikhochschule and since 1996 $ Tanz 1:14 at the Nuremberg Meistersinger Conservatory, becoming professor of bassoon in 2001 at the Nuremberg-Augsburg % Rezitativ 0:44 Musikhochschule. He has been the recipient of a number of prizes and awards at home and abroad, gives regular ^ master-classes, and serves as woodwind adviser to the Bavarian Youth Orchestra. Abendlied 3:06 & Ausklang 1:29

8.557344 5 6 8.557344 NAXOS NAXOS One of Europe’s foremost living composers, Hans Werner Henze has written an extraordinarily prolific quantity of music in every genre. This disc of his guitar music spans almost thirty years of his career and ranges from Royal Winter Music, a virtuosic sonata which extends the boundaries of guitar technique, to the folk music-like Neue 8.557344 Volkslieder und Hirtengesänge, inspired by Austrian peasant songs. DDD Hans Werner Playing Time HENZE 59:54 HENZE: (b. 1926) HENZE: Guitar Music • 1 1-3 Royal Winter Music (1978/79) 18:53 utrMusic • 1 Guitar – Second Sonata on Shakespearean Characters for Guitar Music • 1 Guitar 4-6 Drei Fragmente nach Hölderlin (1958) 1 10:23 (Three Fragments from Hölderlin)

7-9 Drei Tentos (1958) 5:35 www.naxos.com Made in USA Booklet notes in English

0 Selbst und Zwiegespräche (1984/85) 2, 3 12:22 &

(Monologues and Dialogues) 2006 Naxos Rights International Ltd. !-& Neue Volkslieder und Hirtengesänge (1983/96) 4 12:42 Franz Halász, Guitar Colin Balzer, Tenor 1 • Débora Halász, Piano 2 • Gottfried Schneider, Violin 4 Sophia Reuter, Viola 3, 4 • Sebastian Hess, Cello 4 • Karsten Nagel, Bassoon 4 A full track list can be found on the last page of the booklet 8.557344 Recorded at Bayerischer Rundfunk, Studio 2, Germany, from 24th to 25th November, 2003, 8.557344 and from 19th to 20th January, 2004 • Publisher: Schott Producer and editor: Dagmar Birwe • Engineer: Peter Urban • Booklet Notes: David Truslove Cover image: Minette’s Dream by Ulrich Osterloh (www.osterlohart.de) (courtesy of the artist)