Rocket symphony
The rocket symphony (also known as Rocket Symphony ) was composed by the English composer Orlando Gough together with Michael Henry as festival music for the opening of the year Linz09, the capital of culture, in Linz , the capital of Upper Austria .
The Rocket Symphony is an orchestrated choral work of about 20 minutes duration, in strict coordination and combination with a big New Year's Eve - Fireworks at the Linz Donauländebahn the new Ars Electronica Center was performed, where the annual Klangwolke organized. The choir of the premiere consisted of 300 singers; in addition, sixteen vocal soloists from Gough's ensemble The Shout were involved. The fireworks were developed and carried out by the SteyrFire company from the Steyr industrial center, 30 km from Linz . The premiere on New Year's Eve 2008/09 was watched directly by 130,000 people and broadcast live by ORF and seen by 270,000 television viewers.
The coordination and staging of a fireworks display with live music (instead of the usual CD ) is a special artistic challenge, for which the composer teamed up with the Swiss director Tom Ryser . The two artists also designed the closing ceremony of the cultural capital Stavanger (Norway) and the reopening of the Royal Festival Hall in London .