''Heliogabalus imperator'', ''allegoria per musica'' (''Emperor Heliogabalus, allegory in music'') is an orchestral work by the German composer

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large List of compositions by Hans Werner Henze, oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky, Mu ...

. Composed in 1972 and revised in 1986, it is a "cinematic, circus-like" depiction of the brief, lurid reign of the teenage third-century Roman emperor

Elagabalus Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus, 204 – 13 March 222), better known by his posthumous nicknames Elagabalus ( ) and Heliogabalus ( ), was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. His short r ...

. Henze's inspiration came not from historical records but from literature, notably Artaud's fictional biography ''Héliogabale'' and

Stefan George Stefan Anton George (; 12 July 18684 December 1933) was a German symbolist poet and a translator of Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, Hesiod, and Charles Baudelaire. He is also known for his role as leader of the highly influential liter ...

's collection of poems, ''Algabal'', lines from which preface the score: A

symphonic poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ( ...

in all but name, the music is episodic in nature, depicting Heliogabalus's extravagant entry into Rome from his native Syria, as "ecstatic Arab children danced to the strident strains of barbarian music" at the head of the procession. Henze goes on to depict the overthrow of traditional morality with dynamic passages "producing all the noise, vulgarity, showiness and bestiality" of the regime, contrasting it with more reflective episodes depicting the young emperor alone, as "sun-god". The piece concludes with Heliogabalus's inevitable murder, the

Praetorian guard The Praetorian Guard (Latin language, Latin: ''cohortes praetoriae'') was the imperial guard of the Imperial Roman army that served various roles for the Roman emperor including being a bodyguard unit, counterintelligence, crowd control and ga ...

depicted by brief snatches of German and American marches. The work lasts for about 28 minutes, and is scored for a large orchestra, with a particularly wide range of percussion (requiring five players), including

steel drum The steelpan (also known as a pan or steel drum) is a musical instrument originating in Trinidad and Tobago from Afro-Trinidadians. Steelpan musicians are called pannists. In 1992, the steelpan was declared Trinidad and Tobago’s national in ...

tom-tom A tom drum (also known as a tom-tom) is a cylindrical drum with no snares, named from the Anglo-Indian and Sinhala language. It was added to the drum kit in the early part of the 20th century. Most toms range in size between in diameter, thoug ...

s, four sets of

tam-tam A gongFrom Indonesian and ; ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ; ; ; ; is a percussion instrument originating from Southeast Asia, and used widely in Southeast Asian and East Asian musical traditions. Gongs are made of metal and are circular and fl ...

s, a

flexatone The flexatone or fleximetal is a modern percussion instrument (an indirectly struck idiophone) consisting of a small flexible metal sheet suspended in a wire frame ending in a handle. Used in classic cartoons for its glissando effect, its so ...

, whistles and an array of bells. It is dedicated to the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

fellow composer

Luigi Nono Luigi Nono (; 29 January 1924 – 8 May 1990) was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music. Biography Early years Nono, born in Venice, was a member of a wealthy artistic family; his grandfather was a notable painter. Nono bega ...

and to the Chilean poet Gaston Salvatore. The work was premièred by the

Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891, the ensemble has been based in the Symphony Center since 1904 and plays a summer season at the Ravinia F ...

under

Georg Solti Sir Georg Solti ( , ; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt, and London, and as a long-servi ...

on 16 November 1972. When Henze was later preparing the work to conduct himself, he removed what he described as "clumsy"

aleatoric Aleatoricism (or aleatorism) is a term for musical compositions and other forms of art resulting from "actions made by chance". The term was first used "in the context of electro-acoustics and information theory" to describe "a course of sound ...

passages. This revision was published in 1986, and given its première on 28 June 1989 at the Villa Massimo, Rome by the

RAI National Symphony Orchestra The RAI National Symphony Orchestra () is an Italian symphony radio orchestra, owned by the public radio and television company RAI. Its primary concert venue is the Auditorium RAI in the Piazza Rossaro in Turin. Its concerts are broadcast on Ra ...

under Eberhard Kloke. The première of ''Heliogabalus imperator'' was recorded, however it was not until 2019 that a commercial recording was issued, by Wergo Records. This was a transfer of a radio broadcast from 2014, made at the

Maida Vale Studios Maida Vale Studios is a complex of seven BBC sound studios, of which five are in regular use, in Delaware Road, Maida Vale, west London. It has been used to record thousands of classical music, popular music and drama sessions for BBC Radio 1, ...

in London by the

BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. The ...

conducted by

Oliver Knussen Stuart Oliver Knussen (12 June 1952 – 8 July 2018) was a British composer of contemporary classical music and conductor. Among the most influential British composers of his generation, his relatively few compositions are "rooted in 20th-cen ...

References

{{Hans Werner Henze, state=collapsed 1972 compositions 1986 compositions Compositions by Hans Werner Henze Cultural depictions of Elagabalus Works set in 3rd-century Roman Empire Works set in the 3rd century Music based on works by Stefan George Symphonic poems Compositions for symphony orchestra