Sinfonia N. 9

World premiere 11. September 1997

Berlin · Berliner Festwochen

Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester
Rundfunkchor Berlin

Choirmaster Gerd Müller-Lorenz
Assistance Sigurd Brauns
Conductor Ingo Metzmacher

The seventh cross

My Ninth Symphony deals with my German homeland – as it appeared to me when I was a young man, during the war and even earlier. It was written over a period of years, during which time I was intensely involved with the subject, an involvement that I would describe as the most harrowing experience – artistically, too – that I have ever known. This symphony is an apotheosis of terror and anguish, a summation of my creative career, an attempt to come to terms with an arbitrary and incalculable world that assails us at every turn. Instead of hymning joy, the beautiful divine spark, the men and women of my Ninth Symphony spend the evening conjuring up a world of horror and persecution that is still with us today and that continues to cast its shadows over us. This symphony reflects a German reality, but above all it expresses the greatest possible admiration for those people who opposed the Nazis‘ Fascist reign of terror and who gave their lives to safeguard freedom of thougt.

Hans Werner Henze