# Rite of Spring still amazing



## katdad

Sorry if this isn't in the correct forum section...

This afternoon I was going through my CDs and came across Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring), Stravinsky, NY Philharmonic, happily enjoyed this via my vintage but still wonderful Bose 901 speakers.

What an amazing piece of music, still powerful and fresh a century old, filled with intensity, sensuality, and excitement.

Some years ago I saw the quite fine Pittsburgh Ballet perform this, Pittsburgh Symphony of course playing. The dancers were divided into "rival towns" as per the original choreography, with the dancers wearing leotards for females, tight pants for males, and dyed in streaks of color similar to forest-toned wild animals. The dancers also had face and body paint that extended the color and design patterns so that they looked like great tigers or ancient beasts of prey on stage.

I'm still taken with joy whenever I listen to Rite of Spring and wonder how you feel about this now-venerable ballet, both the music alone and the dance.

Also, what other modern compositions also create that primal energy in you? Thanks.


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## aszkid

Le Sacre du Printemps is amazing.

I also join the cause; i'd love to know about works similar to the Rite, with that kind of introduction to modern classical music, but not completely dissonant or avant-garde.


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## Ukko

The Rite is in my biennial listening category; it still works for me under that discipline.

_aszkid_, _Petrouchka_ is less intense, mostly because of relatively calm interludes, but there are similarities.


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## realdealblues

Although I own several recordings of The Rite Of Spring and I know it's supposed to be one of the great works of modern times, overall, it just doesn't do much for me. There's a few parts here and there that I like within it, but on the whole I'm just not a big fan. I try to listen to it about once a year but after 10 years of listening to it, it still doesn't do much for me.

I've never seen any of the dance related to it as ballet in general doesn't interest me. I love listening to Tchaikovsky's ballet music but have just never been interested in actually seeing it performed.


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## Guest

realdealblues said:


> I own several recordings of The Rite Of Spring [...] but on the whole I'm just not a big fan. [..] it still doesn't do much for me.


Your peverse determination seems admirable: why would you own several recordings of a work that doesn't do much for you?


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## PetrB

The music, the complete score, is still as fresh as a crocus pushing itself up through the snow some one hundred plus years after this piece was written.

The ballet, original choreography, was a highly mannered bit of artifice, which to modern eyes is highly self-conscious, perhaps interesting, somewhat inadvertently humorous, and now looking severely dated and of its time. There has yet to be what is considered a completely "successful" choreography, imho.

Another darkly primitivist work which stirs me still, though via its intent / content in a very different way, is the Bartok Ballet "The Miraculous Mandarin." (Le Sacre, 1913; 'Miraculous,' started in 1918, completed and premiered 1924.)

For some reason,I think the first movement of De Falla's Harpsichord concerto evokes a very primitive Pagan (pre-Christian) Spain.

While I am very fond of Prokofiev's Scythian Suite (Sergei's primitivist ballet bid, hopping on that bandwagon not long after the fact -- and sensation -- of Le Sacre), it is "just" some highly chromatic and lovely Prokofiev, and not much more.

Nothing quite busts it up -- and still nearly as strongly as it did upon first hearing -- as does Le Sacre, though. The score was a near complete oner for Stravinsky (with tastes of some similar in the precedent Petrushka) and any other later near direct attempts by others seem quite pale imitations, and bad ones at that.


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## realdealblues

MacLeod said:


> Your peverse determination seems admirable: why would you own several recordings of a work that doesn't do much for you?


I thought maybe I just needed to hear a few different recordings. Maybe it was the interpretation I didn't care for and not the music kind of thing.


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## Novelette

I liked it even when I only knew it through Disney.

You can't imagine how excited I was to find out that there was even _more_ excellent music that was omitted by the constraints of Fantasia. Great music.

I'm astounded by the excellence and genius require to put that music to score. I know the piece well, and I've read through the score countless times, I wouldn't know where to begin to try to write the notes from hearing and memory.


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## Bix

PetrB said:


> The music, the complete score, is still as fresh as a crocus pushing itself up through the snow some one hundred plus years after this piece was written.


Beautifully written and I completely agree


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## DavidA

There was a TV program some time ago a drama documentary which sought to recreate the evening of the Premier and also Nijinsky's choreography. I must say that choreography was somewhat rubbish to me. No wonder other people howled at the premiere. The music is still as fresh as ever to me, especially in the version by the composer. One of his best recordings, I think.


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## Couchie

Music aside, the orchestral score is a masterpiece unto itself and everyone should own a copy for their coffee table.


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## Vaneyes

katdad said:


> ....Also, what other modern compositions also create that primal energy in you? Thanks.


Stravinsky Firebird, w. VPO/Gergiev (Salzburg 2000). :tiphat:


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## nightscape

I've been listening to the Levi version. Always felt it had great sound quality and balance between instruments, which is essential because there is so much going on with this piece it's crazy.


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## Vaneyes

nightscape said:


> I've been listening to the Levi version. Always felt it had great sound quality and balance between instruments, which is essential because there is so much going on with this piece it's crazy.


Shall have to hear. Levi seems to excel in the bigger productions, such as The Planets, Prokofiev R & J, Mahler.


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## PetrB

DavidA said:


> There was a TV program some time ago a drama documentary which sought to recreate the evening of the Premier and also Nijinsky's choreography.


Hear it is, in one link. It is fun.
_Riot at the Rite_ (2005_


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## Jobis

I love the rite, but I think the amount of attention it receives relative to Stravinsky's other work is disproportionate.

I'd even go as far as to say he composed better pieces, such as the symphony for wind instruments and the lesser known canticum sacrum. 

Stravinsky is one of the few composers whose music transcends time, as in it always sounds fresh when you listen to it, and causes you to lose all sense of time when you hear it.


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## PetrB

Jobis said:


> I love the rite, but I think the amount of attention it receives relative to Stravinsky's other work is disproportionate.
> 
> I'd even go as far as to say he composed better pieces, such as the symphony for wind instruments and the lesser known canticum sacrum.
> 
> Stravinsky is one of the few composers whose music transcends time, as in it always sounds fresh when you listen to it, and causes you to lose all sense of time when you hear it.


His output is littered with masterworks, whether small or large. More than Canticum Sacrum, I think Threni is even 'greater.'


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## LFTBR

I agree, the Rite is still incredible music. After a long stretch of neglect, I dusted off my recordings and have been working through them as a tribute to the Rite of Springs centenary. Still shocking and brilliant, this first love of mine still thrills.


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## techniquest

Such a great piece of music yet I only have three recordings: two on vinyl (Markevich and MTT) and one on CD (Petkov / Plovdiv Philharmonic) - no, listen to it _before_ you start laughing!!


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## LFTBR

Still a great piece, though not quite as shocking for me as it used to seem. My 4th grade teacher also happened to have a side career as a professional orchestral violist and we spent most of that year in school digging deeply (or so it seemed at the time) into the major works of Stravinsky. Needless to say this was an unusual education to receive here in the States at the regular old public school elementary I went to!

My first favorite recording was the Bernstein/Israel Philharmonic recording. I've since acquired seemingly an entire shelf of Rite of Spring discs! I think my favorite now is the Ozawa/Chicago recording. So much visceral energy and violence, but still very precise and impeccably played.

I think my least favorite, surprisingly is the Boulez/Cleveland disc that is paired with the 1911 Petrouchka. It is clean and precise to be sure, but it is just missing that special something that sets the Rite apart from other standard orchestral fare. I actually wrote a little review of it this recording (and talked about what I though its shortcomings are) if anyone is interested:

http://listeningfromthebackrow.com/2013/08/09/rite-of-spring-boulez-cleveland-orchestra/

Even after all these years, I still love the Rite of Spring, though for different reasons. It doesn't seem so rhythmically complex anymore, and it doesn't sound dissonant to me either. I understand it better and my musical education is far beyond that of my youthful self, but even though it doesn't shock in the same, I still find it interesting, insightful, and am still finding new things that I never new existed within the composition.


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