“A symphony of some length” was conductor Serge Koussevitzky’s request of Stravinsky for the 50th anniversary season of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Stravinsky’s publisher wanted “something popular,” specifically an orchestral piece without chorus. But, as Stravinsky put it, “I had had the psalm symphony idea in mind for some time, and that is what I insisted on composing.”

Stravinsky planned “a choral and instrumental ensemble in which the two elements should be on an equal footing, neither of them outweighing the other.” For his text, he chose three of the Psalms of David: parts of Psalms 38 and 39, and all of Psalm 150.

The Symphony of Psalms was finished on August 15, 1930. The score contained the following inscription: “This Symphony, composed to the glory of GOD, is dedicated to the Boston Symphony Orchestra on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of its existence.”

The planned première with the Boston Symphony was postponed, so the first performance was conducted by Ernest Ansermet in Brussels on December 13, 1930. Six days later, Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra gave the American première.

“One of the summits of the musical arts,” wrote composer Alexander Tansman of the Symphony of Psalms, “a work that can be placed, without the slightest hesitation or fear, side by side with the Passions of J.S. Bach and the Missa Solemnis of Beethoven. It is a work altogether profound, and Stravinsky’s lyricism is manifested in it with all the brilliance of his musical genius.” The middle movement is a double fugue.

~ Program Notes by Charley Samson, copyright 2023.