Join us for a special performance marking the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Hans Werner Henze's epic solo guitar sonata, Royal Winter Music: First Sonata on Shakespearean Characters, as well as the 100th year since Henze's birth.

The sonata emerged from an ambitious project by the legendary English guitarist Julian Bream - who, fresh from his successful commissions and performances of new works by Benjamin Britten, William Walton and Richard Rodney Bennett, approached Henze with the request for a work on the scale of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata.

In the composer's words, the guitar 'possesses a richness of sound capable of embracing everything one finds in a gigantic contemporary orchestra, but one has to pause to notice this: one has to pause, and completely exclude noise.' The resulting six-movement work pushes the guitar to new limits as across thirty minutes, Shakespearean portraits are created in sound.

Performed alongside the sonata are the guitar works of György Kurtág and Morton Feldman: two other major figures in 20th-century music also celebrating their 100th birthdays.

Program

György Kurtág

"...lassan szállj és hosszan énekelj, Haldokló hattyúm, szép emlékezet!..." (1978-2007)

Morten Feldman

The Possibility of a New Work for Electric Guitar (1966)

Hans Werner Henze
Royal Winter Music: First Sonata on Shakespearean Characters (1976)
1. Gloucester (Majestically)
2. Romeo and Juliet (Singing slowly, with tenderness)
3. Ariel (Swiftly, gently, mysteriously)
4. Ophelia (Slowly)
5. Touchstone, Audrey and William (with humour)
6. Oberon (majestically)

Credits

Geoffrey Morris, guitar

Venue Information

This event takes place in Hanson Dyer Hall, located on the third floor of The Ian Potter Southbank Centre which is accessible via the stairs or lift. Please enter via the main entrance at 43 Sturt St, Southbank VIC 3006.

Image: Geoffrey Morris

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