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Song of the Nightingale (Le chant du Rossignol, poème symphonique)
Igor Stravinsky

One of the towering figures of twentieth-century music, Igor Stravinsky was born in Oranienbaum, Russia on June 17, 1882 and died in New York City on April 6, 1971. His best-known works remain the three ballet scores based on Russian themes and scenarios—The Firebird (1910, rev. 1919, 1945), Petrushka (1910-11, rev. 1947), and The Rite of Spring (1913, rev. 1921). All three scores were composed for fellow ex-patriot Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, based in Paris. Stravinsky wrote works that encompass many genres which explore a wide variety of musical styles, all of which bear his own distinctive traits. Stravinsky’s composition of his first opera, The Nightingale, began in 1908 and was completed in 1914. Song of the Nightingale was created in 1917, deriving music from Acts 2 and 3 of his short opera, This poème symphonique, as he called it, is scored for piccolo, flute, 2 oboes, E-flat clarinet, clarinet in A, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, celesta, 2 harps, and strings.


Igor Stravinsky’s initial foray into the world of opera came into existence in 1914 with The Nightingale, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s 1843 fairy tale of the same name. The opera, originally set to a Russian libretto by the composer a Stepan Mitusov, was composed shortly after Stravinsky’s success with his scores to the ballets, The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911) and the even more revolutionary Rite of Spring (1913). Ever since its publication in 1923, the opera has been known by its French title with the addition of the words “conte lyrique” (lyrical tale).


Set in China, the tale is told from the viewpoint of a fisherman about how a nightingale is brought to the Imperial court so that Emperor may enjoy its singing. In the opera’s second act we learn that the bird, whose sweetest melodies are best enjoyed in the forest, is at first greeted with delight by the emperor. Japanese emissaries subsequently present him with a mechanical nightingale, which the emperor proclaims to be the “first singer.” Insulted, the real bird flies away in anger. Act Three finds the emperor near death. The real nightingale returns. Moved by the bird’s song, Death retreats and the emperor rewards the nightingale by restoring her title as “first singer.” The sweet songstress, satisfied by the emperor’s tears, rewards the monarch by promising to continue to sing for him each night.


Stravinsky returned to the music of Le Rossignol in 1917, turning its music into a purely symphonic work for the concert hall, although the impresario Sergei Diaghlev retasked it as a ballet. The poème symphonique heard on tonight’s program was first performed in Geneva on December 6, 1919. The music comprises four distinct sections. After the introductory material, we hear a Chinese march, followed by the song of the nightingale, represented by the flute and an instrumental replication of the sound of the Chinese erhu (a two-string bowed instrument), and concluding with the song of the mechanical nightingale. Its music contains a modicum of “chinoiserie,”melded with Stravinksy’s rhythmic angularity and spectacularly colorful orchestration. Those listeners who are familiar with Stravinsky’s ballets, The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring, will hear clear echoes of those scores in Song of the Nightingale.




Program Note by David B. Levy © 2026

Song of the Nightingale (Le chant du Rossignol, poème symphonique)
Igor Stravinsky

One of the towering figures of twentieth-century music, Igor Stravinsky was born in Oranienbaum, Russia on June 17, 1882 and died in New York City on April 6, 1971. His best-known works remain the three ballet scores based on Russian themes and scenarios—The Firebird (1910, rev. 1919, 1945), Petrushka (1910-11, rev. 1947), and The Rite of Spring (1913, rev. 1921). All three scores were composed for fellow ex-patriot Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, based in Paris. Stravinsky wrote works that encompass many genres which explore a wide variety of musical styles, all of which bear his own distinctive traits. Stravinsky’s composition of his first opera, The Nightingale, began in 1908 and was completed in 1914. Song of the Nightingale was created in 1917, deriving music from Acts 2 and 3 of his short opera, This poème symphonique, as he called it, is scored for piccolo, flute, 2 oboes, E-flat clarinet, clarinet in A, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, celesta, 2 harps, and strings.


Igor Stravinsky’s initial foray into the world of opera came into existence in 1914 with The Nightingale, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s 1843 fairy tale of the same name. The opera, originally set to a Russian libretto by the composer a Stepan Mitusov, was composed shortly after Stravinsky’s success with his scores to the ballets, The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911) and the even more revolutionary Rite of Spring (1913). Ever since its publication in 1923, the opera has been known by its French title with the addition of the words “conte lyrique” (lyrical tale).


Set in China, the tale is told from the viewpoint of a fisherman about how a nightingale is brought to the Imperial court so that Emperor may enjoy its singing. In the opera’s second act we learn that the bird, whose sweetest melodies are best enjoyed in the forest, is at first greeted with delight by the emperor. Japanese emissaries subsequently present him with a mechanical nightingale, which the emperor proclaims to be the “first singer.” Insulted, the real bird flies away in anger. Act Three finds the emperor near death. The real nightingale returns. Moved by the bird’s song, Death retreats and the emperor rewards the nightingale by restoring her title as “first singer.” The sweet songstress, satisfied by the emperor’s tears, rewards the monarch by promising to continue to sing for him each night.


Stravinsky returned to the music of Le Rossignol in 1917, turning its music into a purely symphonic work for the concert hall, although the impresario Sergei Diaghlev retasked it as a ballet. The poème symphonique heard on tonight’s program was first performed in Geneva on December 6, 1919. The music comprises four distinct sections. After the introductory material, we hear a Chinese march, followed by the song of the nightingale, represented by the flute and an instrumental replication of the sound of the Chinese erhu (a two-string bowed instrument), and concluding with the song of the mechanical nightingale. Its music contains a modicum of “chinoiserie,”melded with Stravinksy’s rhythmic angularity and spectacularly colorful orchestration. Those listeners who are familiar with Stravinsky’s ballets, The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring, will hear clear echoes of those scores in Song of the Nightingale.




Program Note by David B. Levy © 2026