I still can’t believe I performed Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring when I was like 16 or so —the flute part, no less. It felt impossible at the time (still does). The beat counting alone is a waking nightmare for any flutist. You don’t “understand” the piece as much as survive it.
Now years later as I’m watching a recreation of its riotous 1913 premiere—courtesy of the film Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2009)—I’m still stunned. The film opens with a faithful reenactment of that infamous night when Paris’s upperclass literally lost their mind and etiquette over, divine art: (fun fact: the movie is (loosely) about a love affair between Chanel and Stravinsky. With Mads Mikkelsen playing Stravinsky, honestly, I’d believe he can have an affair with anyone…)
Maurice Ravel was in the audience and—legend has it—was the only one who got it.
But back to the music: the Joffrey Ballet has a historically accurate reconstruction of Rite that’s available on YouTube, and the summary is almost as gripping as the performance:
Igor Stravinsky and Vaslav Nijinsky funded by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes collaborated by chance (not choice) with the authority on Pagan Russia Nicholas Roerich and on May 29, 1913 debuted the most shocking, ground breaking event in ballet history. To date, there is no other “epic” ballet as this. However Paris was not ready for this 3 prong attack (after the nice Les Sylphides…): weird choreography, strange music and a dark scenario that did not have tutus! They could not stretch themselves to meet it so they railed against it and chose an effigy: Vaslav Nijinsky. The spoils would go to the great maestro Igor Stravinsky, whose Rite of Spring became the yardstick by which composition would be measured,. To this day.
(Pretty emo right? Go to my site https://www.thisisnotswanlake.com for every imaginable image, video and opinion on this masterpiece.)
What strikes me now is how revolutionary Rite still feels. The raw, irregular rhythms, the primitive violence of the choreography, the sonic aggression… It’s aggressive and rude and that’s the point. It offended tradition so deeply that it cracked something open. If we didn’t have works like this shaking the arts awake, we’d still be stuck listening to pre-Bach fluff, wouldn’t we?
More on the Rite:
The Rite of Spring – a rude awakening | the Guardian | https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/apr/12/rite-of-spring-rude-awakening
Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky: A Mysterious Love Story | Lofficiel | https://www.lofficielibiza.com/culture/coco-chanel-and-igor-stravinsky-a-mysterious-love-story
The Riot of Spring | Lapham’s Quarterly | https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/riot-spring#:~:text=The%20premiere%20of%20Le%20Sacre,%2C%20stampedes%2C%20chairs%20knocked%20over.