Henze - Barcarola/Dessau - Meer der Stürme

I relistened to Henze's Barcarola. I mentioned Mahler and early Schoenberg as reference points, but the very beginning of the piece - with its fading wave of dark, undulating strings - brings another iconic work to mind: Sibelius' Symphony nr. 4.  There is maybe not a lot of Sibelius in the remainder of the Barcarola, but it is such a strong and evocative gesture, and Henze alludes to it again in the final bars, that it continues to echo long after the music had stopped. The Barcarola strikes me as a superbly crafted, varied and complex piece of symphonic writing of a predominantly martial character. The work is expertly scored too, with some startling effects that seem to come right out of a scifi movie. The basic theme seems to be disjointed waltz - likely, a barcarole - that imaginatively winds its way through the symphonic fabric. Henze builds patiently towards a manic, fantastic climax. Then again those dark strings, morendo. Luftpause. And a mysterious, glittering coda, ppp, brings the work to an end. Henze himself provided some programmatic pointers when he said that the music might depict a dying man crossing the Styx, or perhaps Odysseus weathering a stormy night and arriving at last in Ithaca. It was written in memory of the composer Paul Dessau. The wikipage on Henze lists a very extensive and varied oeuvre. Seems this could be the start of long exploration. We'll start with the 10 symphonies.

Paul Dessau ... Who was this again? I had to look it up: a prominent and controversial DDR composer. Convinced communist (as was Henze) and dodecaphonist, engaged teacher and public figure.  Only this week I purchased a box set ('Nova - East Germany Symphonies' on Berlin Classics) in which two works of Dessau were included. I listened to Meer der Stürme (Orchestermusik nr. 2, 1967), a 14 minute symphonic meditation on the Soviet space programme's success in landing the unmanned Luna 13 on the Moon's Oceanus Procellarum. The score was dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. Despite the overtly propagandistic programme, it is a surprisingly angular and abstract work that will have caused headaches with many a party functionary. Likely this is another case in which private motives and public smoke screens are indissolubly intertwined. Meer der Stürme is a fairly loud piece, and not very subtly scored. So in a first audition it can come across as rather coarse. But one senses a disciplined and acute musical imagination. It certainly warrants repeated hearing. The recording by the Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester Leipzig conducted by Herbert Kegel is satisfactory. I'd love to hear it in the hands of a more capable ensemble.