BBC SSO: Reimann, Henze, Pintscher

[Guest]

Recorded 22 June 2012 for future transmission on Hear and Now.

"New German Mythmakers": recent German music inspired by literature

• Reimann: Nine Pieces for Orchestra
• Henze: 8th Symphony
• Pintscher: Reflections on Narcissus for Cello and Orchestra

Anyone familiar with these?

I found the Reimann a bit dull - despite using different sections of the orchestra for different pieces, the overall (ominous) mood of the music remained much the same throughout, and there was no sense of overall development.

The Henze was inspired by "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and there was a definite sense of the magical world interacting with the earthly one - or at least of interplay between light-textured music and more solid sounding sections. Definitely a piece I'd like to hear again.

To me the Pintscher was a bit long: it started off well, got a bit monotonous after a while, and then became interesting again about two-thirds of the way through. There was some imaginative orchestration - although the bowing of the sides of the vibraphone/xylophone bars was a bit over-used - with much of the cello writing being at the top end of the register.

But from the conversations I heard on the way out, opinions varied about which had been the most impressive pieces.

[heliocentric]

I don't know any of those actual pieces, only other works by those composers, and I think like you I would probably have found the Henze most interesting, although Reimann is always worth a try - most of his music does tend towards the ominous and monumental, both of which features contribute to the expressive strength of his Lear opera, I think. To me Pintscher often sounds like Henze with more up-to-date sound effects added (deriving from Lachenmann, for example).

As for "new", though, Henze was born in 1926 and Reimann in 1936!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

To me Pintscher often sounds like Henze with more up-to-date sound effects added (deriving from Lachenmann, for example).

[3rd Viennese School]

Explored Henze 8 back in March.

I can hum some of the tunes now.

Mvt 1 and 3 is like no. 7.

I like the bit in mvt 1 where you get the climax then afterwards it settles down more quietly but you can hear the woodwinds panicking.
Mvt 2 scherzo must be Mahler I suppose.

3VS