Locations - John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes / Herbert Henck: Festeburger Fantasien

Herbert Henck

“As well as being a superb technician,” wrote The Guardian, “Herbert Henck always puts together his discs with great thoughtfulness.” “Locations” gives the most complete indication of Henck’s musical range yet.     He is heard, once again, as an insightful interpreter of modern music, and also as a most convincing improviser. Disc One is devoted to an impeccable account of John Cage’s seminally important “Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano”. Disc Two features two groups of improvised “fantasies”, each of them taped as “freestyle extensions” of Henck’s interpretative work.

Featured Artists Recorded

1993-2000, Festeburgkirche Frankfurt

Original Release Date

22.04.2003

  • CD 1
  • Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano
    (John Cage)
  • 1Sonata I02:44
  • 2Sonata II02:04
  • 3Sonata III02:47
  • 4Sonata IV01:45
  • 5First Interlude03:14
  • 6Sonata V01:41
  • 7Sonata VI02:11
  • 8Sonata VII02:11
  • 9Sonata VIII03:13
  • 10Second Interlude03:50
  • 11Third Interlude02:35
  • 12Sonata IX04:35
  • 13Sonata X03:55
  • 14Sonata XI03:19
  • 15Sonata XII03:33
  • 16Fourth Interlude03:06
  • 17Sonata XIII04:36
  • 18Sonata XIV: Gemini - after the work by Richard Lippold03:23
  • 19Sonata XV: Gemini - after the work by Richard Lippold03:31
  • 20Sonata XVI06:23
  • CD 2
  • Festeburger Fantasien - Second Series
    (Herbert Henck)
  • 1Duo I06:25
  • 2Duo II03:37
  • 3Duo III01:18
  • 4Solo I01:43
  • 5Duo IV05:36
  • 6Duo V03:13
  • 7Duo VI05:43
  • 8Solo II03:27
  • 9Duo VII02:05
  • 10Duo VIII01:13
  • 11Duo IX05:58
  • Festeburger Fantasien - First Series
    (Herbert Henck)
  • 12Solo I02:43
  • 13Duo I09:48
  • 14Duo II03:13
  • 15Solo II12:20
  • 16Duo III05:59
  • 17Duo IV03:21
Fono Forum, Stern des Monats
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Empfehlung
 
Since numerous firstrate recordings of John Cage's "Sonatas and Interludes" for prepared piano flood the market, the competitive stakes run higher with each new version that appears. ... Cage's one-person-percussion-ensemble has rarely sounded as sumptous, timbrally varied or alluring in terms of sheer colour as here. The bass notes boom with presence and resonance, the papery jingling in the higher registers literally whispers in your ear (Sonata No. 3 is a good example), while the overtones in chordal passages have a richness and definition on which audiophiles will pounce. Herbert Henck invests this music with every ounce of his meticulous musicianship and technical finish, remaining fully attuned to Cage's poetic impulses and rhythmic momentum.
Jed Distler, BBC Music Magazine
 
Eine Doppel-CD für Kompromisslose: Im ersten Teil spielt Herbert Henck auf dem präparierten Klavier meditativ-entrückte, nahezu asiatisch klingende Kurzstücke von John Cage, dann traktiert er, oft sich selbst per Playback begleitend, das Klavier in freier Improvisation. Der Kontrast gelingt: Henck ist ein Dramatiker, der von Glissandofluten bis zur zarten Poesie den Rausch freier Schöpfung im Entstehen hörbar macht.
Johannes Saltzwedel, Kultur Spiegel
 
Mompou, Otte, immer wieder Cage - Herbert Henck liebt die eher stillen Außenseiter, die pianistischen Feinmaler und Handwerker. Nun liegen zum ersten Mal Solo-Improvisationen vom Tastenmeister höchst selbst vor. ... Es geht Henck offenkundig um Strukturen, um vielfache Überlagerungen. Das klingt mitunter nach Nancarrow und Bach gleichermaßen - beide waren Meister der Struktur. (Nach eigenen Angaben hat sich Henck überdies kurz vor den Aufnahmen vom lutherischen Choral "Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott" anregen lassen). Und das scheint mir das Beglückende an den gelungensten Passagen dieser Aufnahme: dass Henck bei aller Spontaneität ein Baumeister bleibt, mit dem sicheren Gespür für Fundament und Statik. Ach ja, da sind dann noch Cages "Sonatas and Interludes" - und das Urteil für den Cage-Spezialisten Henck lautet einmal mehr: Exzellent!
Tilman Urbach, Fono Forum
 
Henck’s performance of the Sonatas and Interludes is a delightfully subtle one: finely nuanced, honed to precision, lucidly intelligent. As in all the best renditions of the work, his preparations to the piano are of scintillating effect, helping to make the rhythms both purposeful and aurally apprehensible. Henck makes the work speak to the body: which is to say, he makes it dance. So he succeeds admirably in also reminding us that the origins of the prepared piano have everything to do with dance.
… The special attraction of the Henck recording is that it also offers the pianist’s extraordinary improvisations. Each of the two sets of Festeburger Fantasies is played on two pianos, double tracked. … It is the sheer rapture, the uncoerced creative thrill, of these improvisations that really takes one’s breath away: as does their fluid, unclassifiable beauty. … Henck has written his own booklet notes – two excellent, erudite, informative essays. The recorded piano sound is not only clear and true but also has both depth and warmth. In sum, this is an outstanding release: I’d want to have it even if only for the 78 minutes of Henck’s magisterial improvisations.
Christopher Ballantine, International Record Review