Symphony No. 5 (5. Sinfonie)
Commissioned by the New York Philhar- monic on the occasion of the celebration of the opening season of the “Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts”
Year of composition 1962
Duration 18 minutes
Dedicated to Leonard Bernstein
I Movimentato
II Adagio
III Moto perpetuo
World premiere
World premiere 16. May 1963
New York · Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center
New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor Leonard Bernstein
Comment
Like my oratorio “Novae de infinito laudes”, this work, too, has been influenced by the human world and the scenery of Rome, indeed, perhaps even by the greater hardness of the Roman language compared to that of Naples. The first four notes of the subsidiary theme of the second movement which appears for the first time in bar 36 are borrowed from the song “My own, my own” from the second act of my opera “Elegy for Young Lovers”; they appear again and again in various forms, even in the second and third movements.
Hans Werner Henze
Instrumentation
3 Flauti | 3° anche Ottavino |
1 Flauto contralto | |
2 Oboi | |
2 Corni inglesi | |
4 Corni | |
4 Trombe | |
4 Tromboni | |
Timpani | [per 2] |
2 Arpa | |
2 Pianoforti | |
Archi |