For its December 2009 concerts at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation, the 90-voice Capitol Hill Chorale opened its seventeenth season with carols and holiday classics from around the world, augmented by a band of brass players assembled for the occasion. The first half drew on early music from Italy and Germany — Monteverdi and Gabrieli, Schütz, Praetorius and Buxtehude — and closed with Daniel Pinkham’s Christmas Cantata (Sinfonia Sacra), whose jubilant final section was sung at the composer’s funeral in 2006.
After intermission the program turned east, to a traditional Georgian Orthodox chant for the Divine Liturgy and to Shen Khar Venakhi by Zakaria Paliashvili — a preview of the Chorale’s June 2010 performance of Paliashvili’s Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. Jerry Brubaker’s Trilogy for Christmas followed, a setting of familiar carols by a Catholic University graduate who served as the Navy Band’s French horn soloist and Chief Arranger. The concert closed with John Rutter’s Gloria, in which the singers were joined by brass, percussion and organ.
Program
- Domine ad adiuvandum, from Vespro Della B. Vergine da Concerto — Claudio Monteverdi
- Magnificat, from Sacrae Symphoniae 1597 — Giovanni Gabrieli
- Alleluja! Lobet den Herren in seinem Heiligtum (Psalm 150), SWV 38 — Heinrich Schütz
- In Dulci Jubilo, from Musae Sioniae, Part II (1607) — Michael Praetorius
- In Dulci Jubilo, BuxWV 52 — Dietrich Buxtehude
- Christmas Cantata (Sinfonia Sacra) — Daniel Pinkham
- Ts’mindao ghmerto — traditional Georgian Orthodox chant for the Divine Liturgy
- Shen Khar Venakhi — Zakaria Paliashvili
- Trilogy for Christmas — Jerry Brubaker
- Gloria — John Rutter
Frederick Binkholder, the Chorale’s Artistic Director, led the performances, with Jinsun Cho as assistant director and accompanist. The brass choir was Christian Hinkle, Michael Jury, Dan Lindgren and Jason Sanders, trumpets; Craig Arnold, Dale Moore and David Perkel, trombones; Mike Eberly, tuba; and Larry Ferguson, tympani. Soloists in the first half were Helena Kosanovic, Soline Krug, Heidi Einsweiler, Marian Connolly, Lawson Fite, Silvio Eberhardt, Elizabeth Hague, Kathryn Noe, Chris Wilson, Arthur Fox, Chris McGahey and Leo Surla; Holly Degn, Jessica Chaiken and Katy June-Friesen were the soloists in the second half.
