In Royal Winter Music, each of the nine movements is based on a different character from Shakespeare's plays, with Henze stating that the characters 'enter through the sound of the guitar as if it were a curtain'.
Composer Biography
Hans Werner Henze, born in Westphalia in 1926, was a reluctant recruit into the Hitler Youth movement and served briefly in the army as a radio operator before being captured by British forces.
Composer Biography
Repelled by Germany's postwar social attitudes and its recent past, Henze moved to Italy in 1953, settling near Rome, which influenced a new 'sunny radiance' in his compositions.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Henze's An eine Äolsharfe (To an Aeolian Harp) is a concerto for guitar and fifteen solo instruments, inspired by the German Romantic poet Eduard Mörike, where poems are refashioned into instrumental meditations.
Composition History
Drei Märchenbilder (Three Fairy Tale Pictures) for solo guitar are derived from Henze's children's opera Pollicino, which he based on the tale of Tom Thumb and dedicated to the children of Montepulciano, Italy.
Composition History
The First Sonata on Shakespearean Characters, part of Henze's Royal Winter Music, was prompted by guitarist Julian Bream, who jokingly requested a piece on the scale of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata.
Performer Biography
Franz Halász, the German guitarist on this album, won first prize in both the Andrés Segovia Competition and the Japan SETO-OHASHI Competition in 1993, marking the start of his international career.
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