World premiere May 26th, 2012

Deutschland · Thomaskirche Leipzig
Thomanerchor Leipzig
Members of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Conductor Georg Christoph Biller

Pentecost

A legend, fathomless, treasured and rooted in the past, a myth having changed or vanished in the winter coat of the ages, with plenty of secrets and plenty of significance: It comes up to us who fear and love them on the paths of the unconscious and the memories, conveyed by the Holy Scriptures.
In agreement with the poet Christian Lehnert, I occupied myself with the ‘Outpouring of the Holy Spirit’, with the miracle, in a way with the healing, the saving of the souls as depicted in Medieval arts, e.g. in painting, where the young apostles are gazing childlike at the starry heaven, hoping to receive grace, answer and blessing.
In our work, Christian and I describe and present the world as it can be experienced today - with its supernatural sounds of the desert storms, with the forsakenness and the fears, with the longing for peace, for love, for calm and rest. A choir of many voices declaims the agony of the abandoned, the eternal mourning, the loss, but also the moments of joy and delight, for these are certainly not supposed to be lacking, especially not in this case, when the pureness of young voices seem to invite the composer to fill the whole world with forgiveness, love and hope and glory.
 
Hans Werner Henze, Marino, March 4th, 2012