Hans Werner Henze has always had a strong connection to literature, most particularly Friedrich Holderlin and Georg Trakl - poets that represent individuality, complexity, the sensitive exploration of feeling and vulnerability to the utmost degree. For a long time, the late works by Holderlin had been labeled as products of the madness of the last decades of his life. The text of his soaring hymn in lieblicher Bläue was set by Henze in his Kammermusik 1958. The twelve-tone work Apollo et Hyazinthus is based upon poetry by Trakl. The work exists in a rarified space between chamber music, symphonic poem, harpsichord concerto and orchestral song. Both the title and the music of Henze's septet Canzona per sette strumenti is reminiscent of the 16th and 17th centuries. This fascinating sampler of Henze's music is performed by the Ensemble Horizonte under the direction of Jorg-Peter Mittmann.
