''Sebastian im Traum'' (''The Dream of Sebastian'') is an orchestral composition by the German

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large List of compositions by Hans Werner Henze, oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky, Mu ...

. Based on the poem of the same name by Georg Trakl, it is a fifteen-minute composition for large orchestra. Composed in 2004, it was a joint commission by the Eduard van Beinum Foundation, the

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra based in New York City. Known officially as the ''Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc.'', and globally known as the ''New York Philharmonic Orchestra'' (NYPO) or the ''New Yo ...

, the Zurich Tonhalle and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. According to Henze:

The music tried to follow the traces of the poet's words (as someone with a movie camera tries to capture the course of events or as another perhaps takes down the communication of subject matter in shorthand) and it has a deep relationship to Salzburg - to the ... temperatures and perfumes, to the rustic Baroque, to the biblical, to the wooden crucifix, to the nearness of death, to the moonlight, to Traklish evening sonatas... we continually hear different characters, new ones always come and go, appear, shine, and disappear.Extended notes at chesternovello.com
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It was premiered on 22 December 2005 at the Concertgebouw, with

Mariss Jansons Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons (14 January 1943 – 1 December 2019) was a Latvian Conducting, conductor, best known for his interpretations of Gustav Mahler, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Strauss, and Russian composers such as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, ...

conducting. The same forces later recorded it as part of a two-disc set featuring

Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

's Sixth Symphony on the orchestra's own label.

References

{{Authority control Compositions by Hans Werner Henze 2004 compositions Compositions for symphony orchestra Music commissioned by the New York Philharmonic Music commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra