Symphony No. 9 (Shostakovich) Symphony No. 9 (Shostakovich) Symphony No. 9 in E-flat major, Op. 70, was composed by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1945. It was premiered on 3 November 1945 in Leningrad by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky. The ninth symphony was originally intended to be a celebration of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II (see Eastern Front). The composer declared in October 1943 that the symphony would be a large composition for orchestra, soloists and chorus "about the greatness of the Soviet people, about our Red Army liberating our native land from the enemy". On the occasion
Symphony No. 8 (Henze) Pole is naturally at the opposite end of the range. The second movement depicts Titania's attempted seduction of Bottom, whilst the Adagio final movement takes Puck's "If we shadows have offended" speech at the end of the play. It was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who commissioned the piece (and to whom Henze dedicated it) under Seiji Ozawa on 1 October 1993. Symphony No. 8 (Henze) The Eighth Symphony by the German composer Hans Werner Henze was composed in 1992–93. Using Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as inspiration, it has a lighter theme than the major work it immediately