Chamber Concerto 05

Hans Werner Henze returned repeatedly to his 1st Symphony and subjected the work to a number of revisions and alterations. In 2005, he gave it the form of a chamber concerto, creating the Kammerkonzert 05 for a 15-part ensemble with members of the Bayerische Staatsoper to mark the 80th anniversary of the opera house.
This arrangement is based on an initial version for chamber orchestra dating from 1963 in which Henze shortened the four-movement work to three movements, thereby providing the fast outer movements with a lively driving internal structure. Only the slow Notturno presenting the viola solo remains in its original version forming the central movement. The music strides forth in its transparent instrumentation, only to die away in the culminating soft tones of the percussion.