Erlkönig Fantasy for Orchestra

Henze's Erlkonig is an orchestral fantasy on Goethe's ballad and on Schubert's setting of it, and the subtitle names both sources. The score was completed in 1996, lasts about six minutes, and was drawn from the ballet Le fils de l'air; it is written for a chamber orchestra with a large percussion section. Marek Janowski conducted the first performance with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris on 31 January 1997. Henze does not quote Schubert whole, but lets fragments of the song's galloping accompaniment surface inside his own texture.