Yesterday was an interesting show. The theme was death. But it was oddly not depressing. There were only two pieces, and no intermission.
The first piece was Stravinsky's Funeral Song, op. 5. It was written shortly after the death of his friend and mentor, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The piece was performed once, at a memorial concern for R-K, and then the score was lost to the ages. There were rumors about where it was, but searches by musicologists turned up nothing.
Over 100 years after its only performance, in 2015, the long lost score turned up in the dusty corner of a library at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. The piece was sad and powerful and lovely.
The second piece was the showstopper in length, but in my opinion paled in comparison in terms of its ability to move. It was Johannes Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem, op. 45 ("A German Requiem"). It is a seven-movement choral piece, so I was predisposed to like it. However, the basis in Bible verses predisposed me to dislike it, so it balanced out around mediocre.
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