Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring, Part 2

By as early as 1909, composers like Mahler knew that tonality was
reaching its breaking point, and composers like Debussy were
experimenting with colors and ideas a composer like Brahms
wouldn’t have dreamed were possible.  Strauss was shocking
the world in his own right with his erotic and disturbing opera
Salome. Mirroring the roiling tensions all over the world, music
was pushing and stretching at its boundaries in ways that it
simply hadn’t before.  The years from 1900-1914 were a
powder keg for the world and also for music, and you could argue
that Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was the musical version of the
explosion of that powder keg.  And it still has a profound
impact on music today.  So as we go through Part II of the
Rite of Spring, The Sacrifice - the narrative section of the
piece - we’ll talk a little bit more about the riot that took
place at its premiere, but also the reactions to the piece
throughout the 20th century.  We’ll also look at the
influence the piece had on composers from all across the musical
spectrum.  In just 30 minutes Stravinsky changed the world
of music forever and it still causes controversy today.  I
once was at a performance of the Rite where two elderly patrons
of the symphony sat behind me.  As one particularly violent
section of the piece blasted away, I heard one of them lean over
to the other and say, “If they keep playing this modern music all
the time, I’m cancelling my subscription.”  This took place
more than a 100 years after the premiere.  How does a piece
remain modern for so long?  Are there any other parallels in
musical history?  And how does Stravinsky build a narrative
that slowly builds in intensity all the way to the sacrifice of
the young girl and the beginning of spring? Join us!