The link between music and politics figured early in the life of German composer Hans Werner Henze. As a boy he watched his Nazi father “roaming drunkenly through the woods with his party cronies, bawling out repulsive songs.” Such memories left Henze alienated from Germany but also deeply obsessed with it.
Henze’s father “discouraged a musical career,” said The Daily Telegraph (U.K.), “but his mother took him to the opera.” Forced to join the Hitler Youth and later the Wehrmacht, he resumed his interrupted musical studies after the war and launched into a prolific conducting career. West Germany’s official amnesia about the recent war disturbed him, however, so in 1953 Henze moved to Italy, where he lived for the rest of his life.
Henze “enjoyed collaborations with many leading artists,” said The Guardian (U.K.). The poets W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman wrote the librettos for his operas Elegy for Young Lovers and The Bassarids, and the New York Philharmonic both commissioned and, in 1963, premiered his Fifth Symphony. He taught for four years in the U.S., where “he was deeply affected by the civil rights and anti–Vietnam War movements,” and later lived in Cuba.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
But as Henze grew older, “the matter of Germany became increasingly important to his music,” said The New York Times. He modeled his Seventh Symphony on Beethoven, and in 1988 established a music festival in Munich. His late work “Elogium Musicum,” both “Mediterranean-Classical in its sunlight and German-Romantic in its expressive depth,” is “a fitting memorial to its composer.”
-
Nepal chooses toddler as its new ‘living goddess’Under the Radar Girls between two and four are typically chosen to live inside the temple as the Kumari – until puberty strikes
-
October 5 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday's political cartoons include half-truth hucksters, Capitol lockdown, and more
-
Jaguar Land Rover’s cyber bailoutTalking Point Should the government do more to protect business from the ‘cyber shockwave’?
-
Robert Redford: the Hollywood icon who founded the Sundance Film FestivalFeature Redford’s most lasting influence may have been as the man who ‘invigorated American independent cinema’ through Sundance
-
Patrick Hemingway: The Hemingway son who tended to his father’s legacyFeature He was comfortable in the shadow of his famous father, Ernest Hemingway
-
Giorgio Armani obituary: designer revolutionised the business of fashionIn the Spotlight ‘King Giorgio’ came from humble beginnings to become a titan of the fashion industry and redefine 20th-century clothing
-
Ozzy Osbourne obituary: heavy metal wildman and lovable reality TV dadIn the Spotlight For Osbourne, metal was 'not the music of hell but rather the music of Earth, not a fantasy but a survival guide'
-
Brian Wilson: the troubled genius who powered the Beach BoysFeature The musical giant passed away at 82
-
Sly Stone: The funk-rock visionary who became an addict and recluseFeature Stone, an eccentric whose songs of uplift were tempered by darker themes of struggle and disillusionment, had a fall as steep as his rise
-
Mario Vargas Llosa: The novelist who lectured Latin AmericaFeature The Peruvian novelist wove tales of political corruption and moral compromise
-
Dame Maggie Smith: an intensely private national treasureIn the Spotlight Her mother told her she didn't have the looks to be an actor, but Smith went on to win awards and capture hearts
