Happy Birthday, Rite of Spring

[A Lark Ascending]

I hope you all sent a card.

The story (in all sorts of versions) is well known, but...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22691267

Think I must have first heard it in 1973 though it was another year before a bought a copy. Still sounds exciting and edgy today yet it contains some gorgeous melodies (especially the start of part 2).

The thing I love most is the off-centre accenting. Its influence on 20thC classical music is obvious, but what about 70s Prog-Rock?

Edited May 29, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[Royal Oak]

But which performance is best?

Edited May 29, 2013 by rdavenport

[A Lark Ascending]

But which performance is best?

Glad to see you cut to the heart of what really matters!

Despite my aversion to 'who's best?' whittling, The Rite of Spring is a piece I've been through a few versions of. I started with a 60s Karajan version on LP which suited me just fine (I subsequently read that owning a copy led to certain expulsion from The Wine Club...even Stravinsky hated it!). When CD came along I got a later Karajan version which never quite did it for me (I can't quite work out if this was because of a less cutting performance or just that I was now overfamiliar with it). Eventually I was recommended on this very site a version by Muti which I really like. I think for me the crunch comes after the introduction when those first stamping beats come in. Often they can sound a bit muffled - but this latter version stamps very loudly in hobnailed boots. Stravinsky would have been good at morris dancing.

That'll do for me (I have the Stravinsky CBS box with one of his versions there but much prefer the Muti). Except...there's a wonderful accordion duo who have just done a tremendous version of Petrushka. Now if they ever do The Rite, I'll be there.

Of course there's always...

Download for £40 off Amazon and you could play it all day!

Edited May 29, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[Teasing the Korean]

This is in many ways the defining piece of music for the 20th century, isn't it? It is like a road map for so many things to come, pointing the way toward film music, jazz, exotica, even wizard rock. And, of course, it simultaneously drove the final nail into classical music's coffin.

The two definitive versions for me are the Dorati/Minneapolis on Mercury, with the tiki on the cover; and the Ansermet on London, with the topless virgin on the cover.

[Stefan Wood]

This is in many ways the defining piece of music for the 20th century, isn't it? It is like a road map for so many things to come, pointing the way toward film music, jazz, exotica, even wizard rock. And, of course, it simultaneously drove the final nail into classical music's coffin.

The two definitive versions for me are the Dorati/Minneapolis on Mercury, with the tiki on the cover; and the Ansermet on London, with the topless virgin on the cover.

Spot on. I would say the same.

Boulez's version on Nonesuch would be a third.

[A Lark Ascending]

Good article from The Guardian from composer George Benjamin:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/may/29/stravinsky-rite-of-spring

All about the music!

Edited May 29, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[7/4]

wizard rock!

[jeffcrom]

I have a guitarist friend who likes The Rite of Spring because it has "Hendrix chords."

[RiRiIII]

From the NY Times (7 June 1913):