New Stravinsky work found after 100 years!

[FMiguelez]

They found his work called Pogrebal’naya Pesnya, dedicated to Rimsky-Korsakov.

... under a pile of old papers in a Conservatory...

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/s ... -100-years

Stravinsky is one of my musical heroes. I can't wait to hear it!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

That big news. I can't wait to hear it as well.

[EMRR]

Awesome!

[mikehalloran]

Wow!

[cuttime]

Very good news! I can't believe that there isn't a scan of the manuscript anywhere. I'm going to keep looking.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Very good news! I can't believe that there isn't a scan of the manuscript anywhere. I'm going to keep looking.

And there probably won't be as long as someone can make some $$$ selling it somehow. Damn publishers! LOL

[daniel.sneed]

Waow! Thanx for sharing! Can't wait to see it performed...

[mhschmieder]

My Russian isn't as strong as it once was, but I think that translates to "Funeral Song".

Edit: I hadn't read the article yet; just the description. I see The Guardian already translated the title further down.

Can't wait to hear it, as Stravinsky is in my top ten as well. Especially as a clarinetist!

[FMiguelez]

My Russian isn't as strong as it once was, but I think that translates to "Funeral Song".

And you were right. I think it's great that you speak a little Russian. I love the sound of it, and It's one of my favourite languages.

BTW, one of my favourite top 5 pieces of all time, which I consider a monument to western art and an absolute masterpiece, is Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov - Zhivi I Zdravstvui, the Coronation Scene.

It's so hard to pronounce, What does it mean anyway? I can't find a translation by googling the phrase.

I bet you guys know this piece, but if you don't, do yourself a favour and listen to it. Gorgeous choral writing.
Mike Halloran, I bet you know the opera, since it has some great bass parts!

I understand Rimsky-Korsakov reorchestrated Mussorgsky's version, and frankly, I like Nikolai's version better (the original orchestration didn't seem as well developed and clear).

The music is amazing, but seeing the whole opera must be even better.

This is a YouTube link of the opera. It's not the best version I've heard, but you'll get the idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElR64bqJwIM

This is the CD I have and the one I love:
http://www.amazon.com/Moussorgsky-Zhivi ... B001AUDA4W

This one seems also nice, from the short excerpt I could hear:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/great ... d157515102

And this is a representation of the opera, and I think this is with Mussorgsky's original version. Now that I heard it, I take back what I said about his orchestration. For the stage full performance of the opera it works great! (but I still prefer Rimsky's).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70RIWenSlns

[FMiguelez]

I just found this from the libretto:

Zhivi i zdravstvui, batya! -------> Stay alive and well, father!

http://www.elnitsky.com/khovanschina.html

[monkey man]

My Russian isn't as strong as it once was...

Is there anything this man can't do? LOL

[mikehalloran]

...I bet you guys know this piece, but if you don't, do yourself a favour and listen to it. Gorgeous choral writing. Mike Halloran, I bet you know the opera, since it has some great bass parts!

Safe bet. I expected to be learning it before life got in my way and had taken classes in Russian to help in that effort.

There are three versions that are performed in the repertoire. The view was that Mussorgski's original wasn't able to be performed and many have had a go at rearranging or recomposing it. Rimsky-Korsakov's is the best known and for decades, was the only one performed.

In the 1970s, the Met decided to perform the original as the composer wrote it. This had never been done before. It's long, complex and contains some of the most fantastic choral work ever written. I first saw that, uncut, in San Francisco with James Morris in the title role about 20 years ago and was blown away. Morris is one of my favorite actors on the opera stage which didn't hurt. I think it is the most performed version nowadays and most companies make major cuts to get it to a reasonable length. Better that than any of the rearranged versions, IMO.

Shostakovich rearranged it, also to 'correct' all of the composer's many mistakes -- he actually says so in his autobiography which I have read. When San Francisco did it a few years ago, I could only wonder 'why?'. I thought it a pale imitation of the real deal and not even as good as Rimsky's. It's ok with me if SFO never does that again.

[mhschmieder]

It's funny, how the translations are usually brought into the local idiom vs. directly translated. I like it both ways, as it tends to show many facets of the same story.

A more literal translation would be something along the lines of "Live and Prosper, Father", or alternatively "Live and Be Healthy, Father", but actually any of the couplings work and it would generally be contextual as to which would be semantically correct.

The word transliterated as "zdravstvui" is the root for the most common formal "Hello" greeting in Russian.

The diminutive form of "Father" would unlikely refer to "Priest" even thought he more formal version of the word ("Batska") could be either.

Even today, musical linguists occasionally update an English interpretation of a title. One of the more famous is the switch from "Night on Bald Mountain" to "Night on Bare Mountain". The Russian is "Lysoy" which means "Bald" but in the context of the story many feel that "Bare" is a better fit.

The famous Tintin graphic novels were deliberately translated into each local idiom vs. directly translated. I bought them in several languages as a result. Another recent example of translating into the vernacular is the Blacksad graphic novel series (anthropomorphic "noir" hard-boiled detective fare).

Hmm, I hadn't paid enough attention to the Shostakovitch involvement in the version of Boris Godunov performed by SFO a few years ago, which I was shocked to have disliked. Even though my all-time favorite opera ("Lady Macbeth of Mtensk") is an original by Shostakovitch, that doesn't guarantee that I like it when a favorite composer mucks with another's work (another example might be Mozart's "update" of Handel's "Messiah").

At any rate, I've always been intrigued by the relationship of the Soviet composers and how many of them served as sort of a "tag team" at times.

[mikehalloran]

?..
Hmm, I hadn't paid enough attention to the Shostakovitch involvement in the version of Boris Godunov performed by SFO a few years ago, which I was shocked to have disliked. Even though my all-time favorite opera ("Lady Macbeth of Mtensk") is an original by Shostakovitch, that doesn't guarantee that I like it when a favorite composer mucks with another's work (another example might be Mozart's "update" of Handel's "Messiah").

At any rate, I've always been intrigued by the relationship of the Soviet composers and how many of them served as sort of a "tag team" at times.

Funny, I was going to bring up the Mozart/Handel comparison but I felt it would be too obscure. Can't get anything past you!

I have to be careful here -- people in glass houses and all... My most performed work is a reorchestration of "Messiah" for sing-along performances. I'm working on a redo of Gay's "The Beggar's Opera" for the summer of 2017.

[mhschmieder]

Hmm, keep me in the loop on "The Beggar's Opera". Beggars can't be choosers, after all.