Saturday 25 February 2017

Everyone's a critic


Last night on Radio 3 saw something that no one had ever expected in the 21st Century - the UK premiere of a piece by Stravinsky.

It was the Funeral Song written in memory of the composer's teacher, Rimsky-Korsakov, in 1908, which turned up in a pile of old manuscripts in a back room of the St Petersburg Conservatoire in 2015, having been lost some time after the Russian Revolution. 

It was certainly an interesting piece, with shades of The Firebird to come and, very audibly, shades of Wagner too - ironically, given that Stravinsky is known for 'disrespecting' Wagner above all over composers. 

My take is that it made a bit too much use of a recurring phrase as it went on. 

An earlier broadcast of it (not on the BBC) is available on YouTube:

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