Stravinsky composed Threni between the summer of 1957 and the spring of 1958, beginning it on 29 August 1957 at the piano of the nightclub in the hotel where he was staying in Venice, and completing it before 27 March of the next year. It was first performed on 23 September 1958 in the hall of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice. The composer conducted soloists Ursula Zollenkopf, Jeanne Deroubaix, Hugues Cuénod, Richard Robinson, Charles Scharbach and Robert Oliver, the NDR Chor and the NDR Sinfonieorchester. Stravinsky dedicated the performance to Alessandro Piovesan, director of the Venice Biennale, who had recently died.
