Instrumentation: 4 (3-4 + Picc), 4 (4. + E.H.), 5 (3-4 +Picc. Cl. in D or E-flat, 5.=Bass Cl.), 4 (4. + Cbsn) – 4,4,3,1 – Timp., 3 Perc. – 2 Hrp. – Strings (18, 16, 12, 12, 10)

Charilaos Perpessas (1907-1995) was born of Greek parents on 10 May 1907 in Leipzig, where he spent his childhood and youth.
He started composing the Christus Symphony in Athens before 1948, a year that marks the close of the second period of his life and the beginning of the third, with his departure for America. The work was completed in New York in 1950. The first performance was given on 26 October 1950 by the Orchestra of the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York at Carnegie Hall under the baton of Dimitri Mitropoulos, and was followed by another on 27 October. By popular demand, the concert was repeated on 2 and 3 December, and there was also a broadcast on WCBS on 10 December. Six years later, on 21 and 22 December 1956, Eugene Ormandy presented the work with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra.