Scenes from a Comedy

Scenes from a Comedy n?est pas une œuvre à programme mais illustre plusieurs scènes de pantomime dans la tradition de la Commedia dell?Arte. L?Ouverture est courte mais saisissante. Arlequin entre en scène sur une fanfare jouée par deux trompettes (Harlequin?s Entrance). La clarinette révèle ensuite les friponneries du personnage. Arlequin danse une valse tendre et subtile au bras de sa bien-aimée Colombine (flûte solo). Le jeu de pantomine se dissout dans un finale puissant qui progresse vers une danse champêtre (Finale and Peasant?s Dance).

Music Of Our Time. Par HENZE HANS WERNER. ‘My Sinfonia No. 8 is not at all tragic or moody like the Seventh. It is a summer piece and is based on three moments from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream‘, writes Hans Werner Henze. This, however, is all we get to know from the composer regarding the work’s reference to Shakespeare’s comedy. On closer examination of the three-movement symphony it turns out that the first movement is a fantasia on Oberon’s order to Puck to search for the magic flower. In the second movement, Henze apparently set the love scenes between Titania and Bottom to music. Ultimately, the final movement shines gracefully and peacefully as if everything that had happened before had only been a dream. - Hans Werner Henze/ Répertoire / Orchestre