Hans Werner Henze

Within contemporary music, Hans Werner Henze (1926–2012) occupies a distinctly individual position. While many other composers strive to realise a particular musical concept as purely and consistently as possible, Henze’s foremost concern was to make himself understood, to reach and move an open-minded listener – without compromising artistic integrity. This aim harmonised perfectly with Henze’s profound literary sensibility and his sense of drama, as the connection with texts and stage action facilitated musical comprehensibility. Consequently, his rich output is dominated by works with an extra-musical dimension, ranging from music and dance theatre to instrumental compositions inspired by literature.
Hans Werner Henze was born in 1926 in Gütersloh into a music-loving family. After the war, he embraced the previously suppressed New Music and soon established himself as an independent voice among a young generation of composers. In 1952 Henze met the poet Ingeborg Bachmann, with whom he formed a long and productive artistic friendship. Together they moved to Italy in 1953, which from then on became Henze’s adopted home. Nevertheless, he remained active in German musical life and, from the 1950s onwards, enjoyed increasing success—particularly as an opera composer—while at the same time the representatives of the Darmstadt avant-garde around Karlheinz Stockhausen, with whom Henze had fallen out, dominated the musical press.

During the student unrest of the late 1960s, Henze, by then an internationally acclaimed artist, took an outspoken stance on the political left and addressed explicitly political themes in his works. From the mid-1970s onwards, Henze became deeply committed to fostering young artistic talent, founding music theatre festivals such as the Munich Biennale and initiating projects for amateur music-making. Remaining remarkably productive into old age, Henze continued to create music theatre pieces and large-scale symphonic works. He died on 27 October 2012 in Dresden.