Hans Werner Henze: Sechs Gesänge aus dem Arabischen, Three Auden Songs
Songs from the Arabianis one of those conceits you often find in the romantic Lieder repertory. These songs come wholly--text and music--from the pen of the composer,Hans Werner Henze. And, as both components took shape in his mind at much the same time, they have an integrity, a mutual responsiveness, that makes them easier on the ear than Henze's idiom often is. The writing is harmonically evasive to the point of irritation. But it's also finely colored and virtuosically capricious, with a strength that manages to be seductive, too. It's also wonderfully well-suited to the pleading, sinewy high tenor of the soloist, Ian Bostridge, who premiered the songs in 1999. He was also their inspiration in that Henze was moved to write them after hearing a Bostridge performance of hisAuden Songs. The readings here, accompanied by Bostridge's regular partner, Julius Drake, are immaculate, with all the ethereal beauty of tone and sensitivity to text that first made Bostridge a star. A major release in the contemporary music catalog, and with potential appeal even to those who think the contemporary world isn't their patch.--Michael White