Bent Sørensen

Second Symphony

Second Symphony is in four movements. The first movement opens with a scream. The subsequent parts of the movement form a unified but complex whole, where traces from the coming movements turn up - constantly in interaction with the scream and its echoes. The second movement is slow and rather melodious. It was actually performed in a 'trailer version' - shortened and minimized in December 2018 in the Danish TV programme 'Deadline'. The third movement is a scherzo - teeming, rhythmic, with almost physical soft and violent meetings, like acts of love between the different layers of music. The last movement is a farewell song - a goodbye. A musical ship is approaching only todisappear again. Where the composer perceives the preceding movements as highly contemporary, there is a touch of the past in this last movement - the composer's past. Sørensen quotes his fourth string quartet 'Schreie und Melancholie', and in this movement he was also influenced by the fact that his mother passed away during the composition of this piece.