Funeral Song (Stravinsky)

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"Funeral Song", (Погребальная песня; Chant funèbre) Op. 5, is an 11-minute orchestral

work composed by Igor Stravinsky written in 1908 as a memorial tribute to the death of
his teacher, the Romantic composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The work 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, replacing an indisposed Glazunov. Stravinsky later called it, "the
best of my works before The Firebird, and the most advanced in chromatic harmony."
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."

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. The rediscovered piece was performed
on 2 December 2016 by Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra.

It has since been performed widely. The Berliner Philharmoniker gave the work its
German premiere under the direction of its chief conductor Simon Rattle in June 2017.
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.