Slave labour The political statements of Hans Werner Henze - investigated by ROBERT ANDERSON '... sensuous richness ...'

Hans Werner Henze has been with us long enough to outlive the various scandals and outrages that have punctuated his career, so as to become almost an establishment figure, with honours, doctorates and professorships showered upon him. It so happens that both the works successfully presented here just antedate the assassination of Che Guevara in October 1967 and the beginning of Henze's 'Cuban' period, where his politics lurched dramatically leftwards and he launched on a reluctant public a series of political statements in music designed for maximum controversy and provocation. If, stimulated by the antics of Bush and Blair, he decides on a second Cuban period, I for one would have every sympathy and applaud to the echo whatever sensation he might wilfully engineer.

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