To conclude this concert with the orchestra of Lübeck Opera, Christoph von Dohnányi conducted what must have been the local premiere of the symphony which Paul Hindemith wrote as a satellite work from his opera, Die Harmonie der Welt. The symphony, however, was first heard in 1951, whereas the opera’s libretto was not finished until five years later, and the premiere took place the following year. Each movement of the symphony takes its title from the parts of music as defined by the medieval philosopher Boethius, and the opera focuses on the life of the mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler. Hindemith’s music, however, contains no trace of imitative medievalism, nor even of the athletic neoclassical style which had characterised his music in the 1930s.