Voices – Romaeuropa Festival

Resistance is more than an act; it is a voice that demands to be heard. In the moving song cycle Voices from 1973, composer Hans Werner Henze gives the floor to twenty resistance poets from across the globe. Written in the shadow of the Vietnam War, this ninety-minute masterpiece stands as an impressive tribute to the human spirit. New European Ensemble performs this timely work under the baton of conductor Carlo Boccadoro, alongside soloists Carina Vinke (alto) and Peter Tantsits (tenor). The instrumental line-up is unique: in addition to their own instruments, the musicians collectively play about seventy different instruments from various worldwide traditions — from Africa and Asia to South America. The result is a profound soundscape that invites the listener: dare to listen, dare to discover.

Henze himself was an outsider who left Germany for Italy, fleeing both homophobia and the strict musical laws of his contemporaries. He regarded Voices as his own ‘Lied von der Erde’, concluding with a hopeful vision: a pre-Columbian flower festival dreaming of a world at peace. This autumn, New European Ensemble brings this extraordinary composition to the Romaeuropa Festival. It is a rare opportunity to experience one of Henze’s most haunting works, in which the cry for justice resonates as loudly today as it did fifty years ago.