HANS WERNER HENZE (1926-2012): 7 Boleros, Ouvertüre zu einem Theater, L’heure bleue, Symphony No. 7.

Description: The symphony you’ll already have; a few years after his one-act opera Venus and Adonis of 1996, a tale of thwarted passion and intense emotion in which the relationships between three actors mirror the mythological characters they are portraying, eventually leading to the death of the beautiful object of desire, Henze extracted these seven Boleros as a suite for large orchestra, lasting 20 minutes. Appropriately hot-blooded, passionate and riddled with dark, sinister undercurrents, the dances all feature the distinctive bolero rhythm, and belong firmly in Henze's tonal, neo-romantic idiom, as does hje five-minute occasional overture for the centenary of the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2012 which turned out to be his last work. Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne; Markus Stenz.