In later life, Stravinsky maintained that Funeral Song, written in 1908 as a memorial to his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov, was his finest work before Firebird. The score, left behind in St Petersburg at the time of his emigration, was believed lost, however, until 2015, when a set of orchestral parts were discovered in the library of the St Petersburg State Conservatory. Valery Gergiev conducted its first modern outing at the Mariinsky last year. Esa-Pekka Salonen opened Sunday’s Philharmonia concert with a superb UK premiere.
Stravinsky claimed that the piece represented the idea “that all the solo instruments of the orchestra filed past the tomb of the master in succession”, and the work is dominated by a grieving melody, first heard on the horn, then passed in slow, steady progression from instrument to instrument. Shivering low string tremolandos, suggestive of Russian Orthodox church music, pre-empt the opening of Firebird, and there are echoes of Wagner in the brass chords that bring the processional to its eventual close. It’s a work of great nobility.
Its companion pieces were Ligeti’s daunting Piano Concerto and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloé. Pierre-Laurent Aimard was the seemingly inexhaustible soloist in the Ligeti, a powerhouse performance in which he and Salonen were marvellously alert to every shift of rhythm and sonority. Salonen’s striking interpretation of Ravel’s ballet placed as much emphasis on the eruptive violence of the central scene as on the sensuality of the pastoral episodes that flank it. The playing was outstanding.
