The Second Sonata on Shakespearean Characters for Guitar was prompted by the distinguished guitarist Julian Bream, who jokingly suggested a piece on the scale of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata.
Composer Biography
Hans Werner Henze, born in Westphalia in 1926, received his earliest musical training against the background of Nazism and was a reluctant recruit into the Hitler Youth movement.
Performer Biography
Débora Halász, the Brazilian pianist on this album, won the Critics Prize (APCA) as the best soloist of the year for her interpretation of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto at age nineteen.
Compositional Technique
Henze's guitar works make virtuosic demands, extending the boundaries of guitar technique in a comprehensive survey that brings to mind the great keyboard works by Bach or Beethoven.
Composer Biography
Unhappy with post-war social attitudes in Germany, Henze moved to Italy in 1953, where a new, sunny radiance filtered into his compositions.
Performer Biography
Franz Halász, the American-born German guitarist on this album, won first prizes at the Andrés Segovia Competition in Spain and the Seto Ohashi Competition in Japan in 1993.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Henze's early neo-classical pieces, influenced by Stravinsky, Hindemith, and Schoenberg, established him as Germany's answer to the musical vacuum after Nazism.
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