Funeral Song (Stravinsky)

Funeral Song (Погребальная песнь or Chant funèbre) is an 11-minute orchestral work by Igor Stravinsky, his Op. 5, written in 1908 when he was 26 upon the death of his teacher Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. It was performed once, considered lost, then rediscovered in 2015.

Original performance

It was first performed on 17 January 1909 by Count Sheremetev's orchestra, conducted by Felix Blumenfeld,[1] replacing an indisposed Glazunov.[2] Stravinsky later called it, "the best of my works before The Firebird, and the most advanced in chromatic harmony."[3][4] Stravinsky's recollection was of a piece in which "all the solo instruments of the orchestra filed past the tomb of the master in succession, each laying down its own melody as its wreath."[5]

Rediscovery

The score was lost after the first performance. The original orchestral parts were found in the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 2015 by archivists and identified as being by Stravinsky by musicologist Natalya Braginskaya.[6] The rediscovered piece was performed on 2 December 2016 by Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra.[2][7]

It has since been performed widely.[8] The Berlin Philharmonic gave the work its German premiere under the direction of its chief conductor Simon Rattle in June 2017.[9] Decca was granted exclusive worldwide rights to make the first recording of Chant Funèbre, which it did with Riccardo Chailly making his debut recording with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra for release in January 2018.

References

  1. ↑ "Funeral Song" ("Pogrebal'naya Pesnya"), details at Boosey & Hawkes
  2. 1 2 "Stravinsky's rediscovered Funeral Song restored to life in St Petersburg", Boosey & Hawkes, November 2016
  3. ↑ "A rediscovered Stravinsky work, from before he made his leap into the unknown" by Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 25 April 2017
  4. ↑ Justin Wintle - 2002Makers of Modern Culture Volume 1 - Page 507 0415265835 Three orchestral works follow which are of genuine artistic importance: the short fantasy Fireworks (1908), the Scherzo Fantastique (1907-8), and the lost Chant Funebre (1908) in memory of Rimsky-Korsakov.
  5. ↑ Paul Griffiths Stravinsky 1992 Page 13 "Here already is one of the central lessons of Stravinsky's music. As for those larger moments that are the complete works, what might have been the next step is missing, since the Chant funebre is lost. Stravinsky's own recollection in the 1930s was of a piece in which 'all the solo instruments of the orchestra filed past the tomb of the master in succession, each laying down its own melody as its wreath against a deep background of tremolo murmurings simulating the vibrations of bass ..."
  6. ↑ "Key Igor Stravinsky work found after 100 years" by Stephen Walsh, The Guardian, 6 September 2015
  7. ↑ Valery Gergiev conducts Stravinsky's long-lost work, Funeral Song
  8. ↑ "Stravinsky's 107-year-old Funeral Song to travel the globe", Boosey & Hawkes, November 2016
  9. ↑ interview with Simon Rattle
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