Rite of Spring
RITE OF SPRING
Saturday, February 4, 2012 • 8:00 PM
Bob Carr Performing Arts Center
Christopher Wilkins, conductor
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 “Pastorale”
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Iconic works by two visionaries who changed the course of musical history.
No music defines its age better than Beethoven’s symphonies and Stravinsky’s ballets.
Two opposing views of nature: one bucolic, the other utterly terrifying. Beethoven’s Pastorale Symphony is one of the most enticing musical landscapes in history, while The Rite of Spring seems more like the eruption of a volcano. Stravinsky’s masterpiece packs just as much punch and holds just as much shock value as it did at its premiere 100 years ago. — Christopher Wilkins, Music Director
In the year 1808 – a year in which Beethoven composed both the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies – a visitor to his door might have encountered a Dr. Jekyll or a Mr. Hyde. So complex an individual was Beethoven that it is unfair to see him only as a fist shaking always fighting against all odds man. To be sure, he was for the most part disagreeable, gruff, ill tempered, and up for a fight. Most of his works bespeak defiance and a fierce determination to overcome. Certainly, his Fifth Symphony is an expression of intense struggle, asserting Beethoven’s own heroic efforts to control his own destiny.
Beethoven’s “Pastorale” Symphony is the seemingly effortless creation of a man who felt completely at ease with nature and who often looked to it for solace. It is for this reason that when we listen to this symphony we feel something beatific. To Beethoven, God was present in every tree, in every flower, and in every brook; if God and Nature are not one in the same, at the very least they went hand in hand. There is no shaking or pounding of the fist in this symphony from Beethoven. While the Fifth Symphony overcomes through struggle and transcendence, the “Pastoral” brings us a sense of deliverance and peace.
Igor Stravinsky is universally considered to be one the greatest and most influential composers of the twentieth century. He was a dynamic innovator in a number of styles employing strikingly original harmonies, orchestrations, polytonalities, and rhythms. His styles ranged from Romanticism to Impressionism to Neoclassicism to Serialism to Jazz and even to Hollywood. The composer Nicholas Nabokov has written, “Despite his many twists and turns, Stravinsky became the unquestioned leader of Western music [in our time]…. Stravinsky and Schoenberg remain the lonely founding fathers of the strangely eccentric and highly anarchic state of modern music.”
In the case of The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky even incited a virtual riot. Well, perhaps not on purpose, but that is exactly what happened when the work was given its infamous premiere at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris on May 29, 1913, with Pierre Monteux conducting. The performance led to one of the most scandalous events in the history of music. It was a scene of pandemonium and emotions run-amok, with the majority of the audience believing they were the butt of a monstrous joke and therefore reacting either with derisive laughter or booing in disgust. Some responded with vicious hisses and rounds of catcalls; rude comments were made and blows were exchanged; the houselights were turned on and off. Stravinsky recalled, “The first bars of the prelude… at once evoked derisive laughter. I was disgusted. These demonstrations, at first isolated, soon became general, provoking counter-demonstrations and very quickly developing into a terrific uproar.”
Exerpts from Notes provided by: David R. Glerum, Music Director – WMFE-FM/NPR, Orlando, FL. (1990-2009); Music Director – WXXI-FM/NPR, Rochester, N.Y. (1980-1990)
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