"Chen and orchestra presented the pensive second-movement “Prayer” first, featuring principal cellist Andrew Snow in a tenderly played solo. Even ears unfamiliar with Scott’s work could pick up on the Sinfonietta’s structural tinkering; compared to “Prayer,” the first movement (“Hope”) burst forth with all the gutsiness of an overture, settling into a rumbustious waltz with wafts of the scherzo from Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. But once the orchestral action simmers down, the reason for the Sinfonietta’s swap sidles skyward: A dusky English horn solo morphs into “We Shall Overcome,” the refrain which closes every MLK concert."