Canadian composer Nathan Henninger made the move, pre-COVID, from busy New York City to the very different atmosphere of the Azores Islands. Located 1,400 km (870 mi) west of Lisbon, the Azores are a far cry from the bustle of the big city. The islands’ link with nature comes through in Henninger’s new work, Five Scenes for Orchestra.
Nathan Henninger in the recording session with the Scoring Berlin Orchestra, 2023
The work is full of atmosphere, and his movement titles reflect that. When the movement is marked Scene 1: Misterioso, Henninger conjures up a dark vision filled with low brass, followed by a lyrical wandering melody in the upper winds and strings.
It’s not a symphony, Henninger declares, because it doesn’t follow any of the symphonic rules, but is more impressionistic. You won’t find any movements in sonata-allegro form. At most, he might give us A-B-A form, but then that’s such a common organisational device that the symphonic world really can’t claim it. It’s also not a tone poem or a piece of program music because there’s no backstory that’s being explicated or illustrated in the music. Themes are presented and developed, but not as you might expect in symphonic music.
Although the music has a great cinematic presence, it lacks the urgency that much film music has – and which can often make film music disappointing on the concert stage. Five Scenes, however, has the advantage over film music because it’s filled with its own imagery.
What Henninger has created is a challenge for the audience: what do you see in your mind’s eye? What world does your ear take you to? The small motives that Henninger builds his scenes around are constantly being stated and re-stated, and so you hear them in different ways each time.
Nathan Henninger: Five Scenes for Orchestra – I. Scene 1. Misterioso
This is music with a triple potential: simply as symphonic music, with the composer challenging the listener to imagine the scenes that the music illustrates. Secondly, as music for a film, the cues in the music are matched by visuals. Thirdly, as music for anime, or even a video game. The musical cues in video games can be a key to the player’s progress, and the music of Five Scenes would give a designer some wonderful hooks.
No matter how you hear these Five Scenes, give them time to grow on you. Play them as individual scenes, rather than a continuous flow of movement to movement. It becomes all the more impressive a work when regarded in detail.
Nathan Henninger – Five Scenes for Orchestra: Scene 1 Misterioso
Nathan Henninger: Five Scenes for Orchestra
Scoring Berlin Orchestra; Nathan Henninger, cond.
NCH Records. Available on CD (EAN/UPC 0860013575915), Vinyl (EAN/UPC 0860013575908), Digital and Dolby Atmos. More info at nathanhenninger.com
Release date: 8 August 2025
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I’ve been listening to Five Scenes for Orchestra by Nate Henninger for a while now, and it felt like setting out on a journey across the sea — sometimes calm and shimmering, sometimes deep and mysterious. The music has a cinematic tone to it, but it also turns inward, inviting you to sit with your own thoughts. It’s both grand and intimate, and I found myself completely carried away, which is what I look for when listening to music or reading, for example. Thank you for this.