Sinfonia N. 8

‘My Sinfonia No. 8 is not at all tragic or moody like the Seventh. It is a summer piece and is based on three moments from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream‘, writes Hans Werner Henze. This, however, is all we get to know from the composer regarding the work’s reference to Shakespeare’s comedy. On closer examination of the three-movement symphony it turns out that the first movement is a fantasia on Oberon’s order to Puck to search for the magic flower. In the second movement, Henze apparently set the love scenes between Titania and Bottom to music. Ultimately, the final movement shines gracefully and peacefully as if everything that had happened before had only been a dream. - Hans Werner Henze