New York Philharmonic / Orfeó Català / Gustavo Dudamel

The world stood still when, on 11 September 2001, two aeroplanes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York in quick succession. There was a collective sense of disbelief everywhere. Shortly afterwards, the New York Philharmonic commissioned a work from John Adams intended to capture the public’s emotional state through music. One year after the attacks, »On the Transmigration of Souls« received its world premiere at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center. Adams describes his work as »a space of remembrance where one can be alone with one’s thoughts and feelings«. »On the Transmigration of Souls« is Adams’s most contemplative and arguably most important work – and a powerful piece of American history.

The programme also features the new work »Invisible House« by the Canadian composer Zosha Di Castri and Sergei Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony, which the composer, according to his colleague Dmitri Kabalevsky, considered »one of his finest works«. In 1944, Prokofiev distilled the essence of his work to date into this symphony and, in the hope of a swift end to the Second World War, dedicated it »to the triumph of the human spirit«.