Symphony of Psalms

To help the Boston Symphony Orchestra celebrate its 50th anniversary in 1930, its conductor, Serge Koussevitzky, asked Stravinsky to write a major work for the occasion. In response, Stravinsky composed his most public avowal of his recently restored Russian Orthodox faith. The Symphony of Psalms was composed for choir and an unorthodox orchestra—omitting violins and violas, so creating a darker-toned ensemble with the silvery gleam of higher woodwind and the occasional glint of two pianos. It is a work in three movements, each setting Psalm verses. First, a prayer of supplication from Psalm 38, punctuated with granite-like chords as the prayer itself is given anguished inflections by the chorus. The second movement, which most clearly manifests Stravinsky’s neoclassical style, opens with an oboe starting an austere Bach-style fugue. The chorus eventually enters with its own fugue—a dignified yet beseeching delivery of verses from Psalm 39, telling how God has mercifully responded—while the orchestra continues the original fugue. The final movement, setting the celebratory Psalm 150, opens with an awed, wonder-filled “Alleluia”. A lively orchestral depiction of Elijah in his chariot galloping up to heaven inaugurates a spirited response from the chorus. The music then sweetens, and unexpectedly arrives at a sustained passage where the chorus, in rapt adoration, sing a short repeating phrase against a slow four-note pattern played by the timpani—as far away from the Psalm’s clashing cymbals as can be imagined, but hauntingly beautiful in its daring simplicity.