Malcolm Miller, Wagner’s Early Songs in Orchestrations by Felix Mottl and Hans Werner Henze

In this article I trace the genesis of four early songs and their initial publication, then consider the context of Mottl’s orchestrations, with a subsequent close investigation of Mottl’s arranging style for each song. I follow this with a discussion of their immediate reception in England where Mottl conducted from 1894 onwards. Finally, I discuss the much more recent versions by Hans Werner Henze who, having famously re-orchestrated the Wesendonck Lieder in 1976, turned to Wagner’s other songs in his Richard Wagnersche Klavierlieder of 1998–9. This later set offers a fascinating insight into Wagner’s early style through a postmodern lens whilst also representing a final stage in Henze’s own political–aesthetic rapprochement to Wagner and Germany.