Music Book Review: Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring by Peter Hill

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
by Peter Hill (Music 784.18 Str)

Spring has sprung, and I often think of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” around this time of year. Just as spring is a time for new growth, Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” seems in retrospect to be a signpost in music history, heralding the age of Modernism for the concert-going public. And like a spring storm, things got off to a rough start: there was a bit of a riot at the debut performance of the piece.

 

To be fair, Schoenberg and his circle beat Stravinsky to the concert-as-riot routine by a few months. The now-infamous “Skandalkonzert” took place in Vienna on March 31, 1913, featuring performances of pieces by Schoenberg, Webern, Berg, and Zemlinsky. Mahler’s “Kindertotenlieder” was also on the bill, but fights broke out within the audience during the performance of Berg’s “Five Orchestral Songs,” and the show ended prematurely. The Berg pieces weren’t performed again publicly until 1952, incredibly enough.

 

But the riot at the debut of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring on May 29, 1913 developed a legendary reputation all its own. This was his third ballet commission, following The Firebird and Petroushka, and it’s likely that the audience was just as taken aback by Nijinsky’s choreography for the dancers as they were by the unique modern sounds of the music. There was laughter and shouting coming from the audience throughout the first performance. Some accounts of this performance have been embellished over time, and perhaps led certain expectations at avant-garde performances of the era. I immediately think of the Dada artists during their formative period, working out of the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. Dada (anti-) founder Tristan Tzara pushed a large audience of around 1000 to their limits in April of 1919, purposely antagonizing them toward rioting and destruction, which Tzara considered a smashing success, pardon the pun, as it transformed the audience from being mere onlookers to being active participants.

 

The legend around the debut performance of the Rite of Spring still looms large, but the real story of the piece is one of adoration. Even most folks at the time of the piece’s debut felt this way: it’s not as widely discussed, but there were five more performances of the work in its first month, and the rest were very well received. No riots on those nights. And it’s gone on to be a much beloved piece, sometimes referred to as the most loved or at least most well-known piece of 20th Century classical music.

 

Here in Polley, we have a book called “Stravinsky: the rite of spring” by Peter Hill, and it’s a great introduction to the piece from conception to its place in modern concert and recording repertoire today. This is a book that you’ll get maximum benefit from if you read music, but there’s still lots of useful and fascinating information for those who don’t. For example, one of the early chapters is called “Sketches,” and explores the handwritten sketches Stravinsky made toward the Rite of Spring between 1911 and 1913. There’s some great musical analysis here of how the piece gradually took shape from the dated sketches, but you can follow a lot of this by simply reading and listening, as Hill makes references to familiar parts of the final version. This is followed by a chapter on the earliest performances of the piece and reactions to it, including informal performances at the piano by Stravinsky, again at the piano in a 4-hand reduction played by Stravinsky and Debussy, at the rehearsals with the orchestra, the dress rehearsal, and that fabled first public performance itself.

 

Following chapters delve further into analyzing the structures and themes of the final piece, followed by a very cool section that highlights historical commentaries made about the Rite by various composers, musicians and critics. Here we find that the piece has been generally well received despite its difficulties, with comments ranging from around the time of its debut all the way to recollections from the late 1970s.

 

Final sections of the book cover the topics of how Stravinsky and Nijinsky collaborated on the choreography—or perhaps more to the point, how they didn’t, and how Stravinsky had some reservations about the initial staging of the piece—followed by some thoughtful comparisons between notable commercial recordings. Hill points out that The Rite of Spring happened to debut the same year as the first complete recording of a major symphony was made (Beethoven’s 5th), so it’s grown up alongside the recording industry. As one of the most frequently recorded pieces by orchestras wanting to strut their virtuosic stuff, there are lots of interesting tempo variations among respected recordings of the Rite—even those conducted by Stravinsky himself. Hill breaks down many of these differences, how they change the character and feel of the piece, and at times how Stravinsky himself reflected on the recordings.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Stravinsky: A Creative Spring: Russia and France, 1882-1934 and Stravinsky: The Second Exile: France and America, 1934-1971 both by Stephen Walsh.]

[ publisher’s official Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring web page ] | [ official Peter Hill web site ]

 

Recommended by Scott S.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Polley Music Library

 

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