Hans Werner Henze

 

Adorable people in the Musical World are few and far between. I used to joke that my memoires would be entitled 'Ghastly people I have known.' Hans Werner Henze was one of the adorables.

It was my old violin teacher Michael Tillett once again who first mentioned Henze's name to me. Together with his mention of the name of Karlheinz Stockhausen I was suddenly connected to the German avant-garde of that time, the 1950s. 

It was thanks however to Michael Vyner of the London Sinfonietta that I actually met Hans. Michael had been acting as Henze's agent and wanted to divest himself of that function. I was of course delighted to take on his conducting activities although he was not a great conductor. Composers are always interesting as interpreters of other people's works however and I remember a Mahler 5 with an interesting and persuasive take on the last movement. Hans explained to me that this movement was problematic unless you saw it as a fable. Telling a story. A complete change from the rest of the symphony.

On the occasion of another concert conducted by Hans at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, two amusing occurrences happened. The first was in the stretta of the first movement of Beethoven's 'Eroica' symphony. A man stood up, shook about violently and dropped unconscious to the floor. This of course did not look amusing because we all thought the man had died. I suddenly remembered that the 2nd movement of Beethoven's 3rd symphony is a funeral march. At that moment two St. John's ambulance men appeared with a stretcher. I thought 'Please God, let them get him out of here before the march starts up.' By now everyone in the hall except the conductor could see what had happened. Oblivious of that because he was facing the other way, Henze started the funeral march as if on cue just as the stretcher-bearers had lifted the man up. 

Later we were told it had been an epileptic fit and the person was all right. Henze said that if he had seen what had been going on he wouldn't have been able to continue conducting. 

After the concert I took Hans to dinner at the Caledonian Hotel as it was conveniently just opposite the Usher Hall. It is not the usual place I would have taken anyone because there was a pianist tickling the ivories during the meal. I could see that Hans was irritated and so was I so like the big guy, I said 'leave this to me!' and went over to the pianist. I told him I was having dinner with the great German composer Hans Werner Henze and we had appreciated his playing so much that we would like him to take a break and have a drink on us, I proffered a £5 note which he took and putting it into his top pocket said with a strong Scottish accent 'Eee thank you very much but I'm a teetotaller' and resumed his playing with renewed gusto.

Hans might have been a better conductor if he hadn't had the habit of smoking weed just before a concert. In fact weed provides the subject of another amusing story. One day Hans asked me if I could get some 'stuff' for him. Thus began my short career as a drug dealer. I called a friend who I knew smoked a bit and he said I should get £100 in cash and meet him the following day. That I did and he handed over a brown paper bag. I gave this to Hans having completed my first 'deal,' not that I took any payment for it. 

A couple of days later, I asked Hans if the 'stuff' had been OK and he told me 'It was the strangest thing. We smoked it but it had absolutely no effect on us.' It was when I mentioned this to my supplier that he admitted the 'stuff' came from house plant in his kitchen.

I saw quite a lot of Hans and his major-domo the hilarious Fausto Moroni because Hans has bought a little house just around the corner from mine in Knightsbridge where he liked to spend the summer as it was too hot in Rome and where they stayed when he had things to do in London. In fact London had been an important place for him since the early days when he composed the score for 'Ondine' a ballet for Covent Garden with choreography by Ashton, still in the repertoire I believe. There are more stories thanks to this proximity. 

One day Hans said he wanted to buy a new jacket and could I suggest somewhere to get one. Opposite Harrods, there was the Lanvin shop and I thought this was the kind of place Hans might appreciate for the purpose in hand. 

We went in and Hans said he was looking for a sports jacket. 'What size are you?' asked the assistant. 'Enormous' said Hans.

I went quite often to the house to pick him up to drive him to one of his concerts and he sometimes invited us in for a late night snack. On one occasion driving him home from the Festival Hall, Fausto said 'Don't forget, so-and-so is expecting us.' Oh dear, Hans moaned, I was so looking forward to getting home and letting my hair down.' Hans of course was completely bald.

Bumping into him in the street, Jill and I with our children, three boys and a girl, Hans introduced us to the friend he was with and explained that the children (who were pretty taciturn when meeting my contacts in the musical world) were 'heavily sedated.'

By far the best Henze story is the one about the robbery at his house at Marino, Rome. One evening burglars broke in, beat Hans and Fausto up (breaking Hans's nose) and tied them up, Hans to the balustrade and Fausto to the grand piano. They were there most of the night before they managed to free themselves. During that time, Hans managed to say to Fausto 'Well, this is the nearest you will get to music.' 

Later Hans told me the worst part had been the jewellery they had taken from Fausto. Hans hadn't been aware of it. 'Such bad taste.'

Thinking about Henze's compositions my theory is he wrote too much. He made it a point of honour to finish every commission on time like a good hand-worker. The only time he was unable to do this he got a heart attack. He told me with pride that he could compose like writing a novel. He was that fluent. He is not played much these days but there are some good works. 

A peculiar example is his ballet 'Orpheus'. I went to the premiere in Stuttgart. The choreography was by Frederick Forsyth. It was one of the greatest triumphs I have ever witnessed in the theatre, The applause went on interminably and rightly so. Everything was great; the music, dancing, sets. I have no idea how long it remained in the Stuttgart Ballet's repertoire but I have not heard of it ever being performed elsewhere, even in the concert hall. 

There are other Henze works that have been performed more than once. Some of his operas were successful and every German opera house had to have one in their repertoire which made Hans quite well off. However, in my opinion 'Elegy for young lovers' which made quite a stir originally doesn't have 'legs' and that can be said for others too. I used to think Boulevard Solitude was a fantastic piece but it disappointed when the Royal Opera did it. I was at the world premiere of 'The Bassarids' in Salzburg in 1966 and didn't like it then despite some exciting music. 

There were a lot of operas. When Hans first went to live on Ischia he invited William Walston over and left the score of Koenig Hisrch on the table. Walton picked up the heavy tome, weighed it in his hands  and said 'Too long.'

Also Hans admitted to me that 'The English Cat' was too long but Edward Bond the librettist refused to make cuts. 

He wrote a huge amount of music including 10 symphonies; Not much is performed these days. 

During his lifetime Hans was much criticised for his hard left politics. These kind of beliefs were typical of composers and artistic people of the time but they invoked conflict in the musical establishment. Hans once said that his political opinions were private like religious beliefs. I'm not sure how he squared that statement with the overt politics of works like The raft of the Medusa, El Cimarron and 'Der langwierige Weg in die Wohnung der Natascha Ungeheuer.'

One further vignette if I may. Hans suffered from heart problems and asked if I knew a specialist in London he could consult. I sent him to Raphael Balcon who had pioneered heart bypass surgery and was the pre-eminent cardiologist at the time. Balcon suggested a heart bypass operation. I suspected he suggested that to everyone who stepped over his threshold so I sent Hans to another doctor for a second opinion. Now I think about it the doctor I sent him to was probably the last I should have chosen: a Homeopathic composer doctor from New Zealand. By a miracle, he gave better advice than Balcon: do nothing. Hans lived for decades thereafter without problems. 

In the end, Hans left my management. There were no hard feelings. I had counted his acquaintance and friendship as life-enhancing. I once asked him why he had allowed me to represent him and he answered sweetly 'I just wanted to see what it would be like to be represented by a person as nice as you.' 'Nice' is probably not what you need in an agent. 

The last time I saw him was at a performance of 'Wozzek' in Weimar. I asked him what he was doing there and he replied 'I'm asking myself the same question.' And that was that.