Originally entitled Musik der Trauer (Music of Mourning), he retitled it after only minor revisions in 1959.
[1] It is cast in four movements: The final chorale is based on a popular Russian song Immortal Victims (de:Unsterbliche Opfer) [2][3] which Hartmann almost certainly learned from his mentor, the conductor Hermann Scherchen, who had heard it while interned in Russia during World War I. Scherchen had published his own translation and arrangement of it in Berlin, for use by the choirs he was then conducting.
It is also likely that Hartmann knew a well-known 78 rpm recording of Unsterbliche Opfer made by the violinist Eduard Sõrmus.
[4] Hartmann said in a letter to Scherchen that the structure of Concerto funebre was designed to reflect: The intellectual and spiritual hopelessness of the period ... are contrasted with an expression of hope in the two chorales in the beginning and at the end.
The first recording was made by the Swiss violinist Ulrich Lehmann with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra conducted by Edmond de Stoutz (Amadeo label).