Stravinsky Conducts the Revolution
Paris, 29 May 1913 – The programme for the new season of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes includes the premiere of a new ballet by the young and still unknown composer Igor Stravinsky. From the very beginning, it quickly becomes clear to the audience that this will be no conventional performance. A bassoon enters in an unusually high register, its sound barely recognisable as that of a bassoon. Not long afterwards, the orchestra erupts with clashing chords and sharp accents. The rhythms are constantly shifting, and the audience reacts almost as wildly as the scenes taking place in The Rite of Spring.
The evening will go down in history with an almost mythical status; the audience boos, shouts and laughs, and eyewitnesses even report fights breaking out in the auditorium. The noise is so deafening that choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky has to shout instructions to the dancers from behind the wings.
Nearly 30 years later, the first American recording of this ‘notorious’ ballet is made in New York. By then, the controversy has died down, and audiences are prepared for a work in which melody is no longer the driving force, with rhythm taking centre stage instead.
In this edition of Treasure Hunting, we’ll listen to the historic 1940 recording, conducted by Stravinsky himself.
The second part of the programme once again features Stravinsky as conductor, this time conducting his third orchestral suite, the 1945 arrangement of his ballet The Firebird.
Programme details:
Igor Stravinsky – Le Sacre du Printemps. Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of New York, conducted by Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky – Suite for Orchestra No. 3, The Firebird, 1945 version. Columbia Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Igor Stravinsky
