Peter Ruzicka's opera Hölderlin was premiered in Berlin in November 2008. As with its predecessor, the music drama Celan, it stands at the centre of a large group of works, some of which point to it, while some underwent greater or lesser changes to find their place within it, and some emanated from it and reflected further on aspects of it. Two particularly significant examples of this further reflexion are united on this CD.

The Hölderlin Symphony, like the Celan Symphony, presents a concentrate of the stage work. This is the source of its material, but it is distilled into a constellation of its own nature; it can most readily be compared with the vocal symphonies of Gustav Mahler and Alexander Zemlinsky.