New Folk Songs and Pastorals (Neue Volkslieder und Hirtengesänge)

World premiere 15. December 1997

Berlin • Kammermusiksaal der Philharmonie

Scharoun-Ensemble

The idea for this music is closely connected with my work of cultural animation in some smaller towns in Styria/Austria. At the time I had made a good amount of sketches about Styrian folklore (which, by the way, I liked a lot) and had composed songs for an amateur play written by young artisticly ambitioned local people. Out of these and similar materials I have compiled this little folky chamber music, hoping to keep in mind some of the atmosphere, the humour of this melancholic country, like a dream or a bitter memory.

Hans Werner Henze