On March 14 and 15, 2009, the Capitol Hill Chorale performed at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church in collaboration with the Washington Saxophone Quartet (WSaxQ), reinterpreting "the great psalms and stories of the Old Testament in rich, new musical settings." The program paired Renaissance and Baroque works with twentieth-century music, including a saxophone-quartet arrangement of Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms.
Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms had been commissioned to mark the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and was first performed in 1930 under conductor Serge Koussevitzky; the Chorale’s program notes described the version heard that weekend as a new transcription for saxophone quartet. WSaxQ also performed Michael Nyman’s Songs for Tony-1, a 1993 work Nyman wrote in memory of his business manager, Tony Simmons.
Program
- Zadok the Priest (from Coronation Anthem, No. 1) — George Frideric Handel
- Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied — Johann Pachelbel
- Heilig — Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
- Praise the Lord (from the oratorio Solomon) — Handel
- By the Rivers of Babylon — Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
- Psalm 43, Richte mich, Gott (No. 2 of Drei Psalmen, Op. 78) — Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
- Fugue in G minor, "Little" — Johann Sebastian Bach
- Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (from the oratorio Solomon) — Handel
- Songs for Tony-1 (1993) — Michael Nyman
- Symphony of Psalms — Igor Stravinsky
The concert was led by Frederick Binkholder, the Chorale’s Artistic Director, with Jinsun Cho as accompanist. WSaxQ’s Reginald Jackson, James Steele, Rich Kleinfeldt, and Rick Parrell performed as soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophonists respectively.
