Friday, March 20, 2009

Igor Stravinsky "Le Sacre du Printemps"

It's Vernal Equinox today, so what could be better than little rite of spring?
"Le Sacre du Printemps" (The Rite of Spring / Весна священная) was composed by Igor Stravinsky as a score to a ballet with Nijinsky. Premiered 29.05.1913, almost caused riots. This music is wild and savage, exploding with ferocious energy. "The Scum" of classical music.
In 1981 Brian May ripped this off when scoring post apocalyptic, neo-barbaric western "Mad Max 2" (or "The Road Warrior" if you like).
You may want to check excellent book "Rites of Spring, The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age" by Modris Eksteins. It's about causes and effects of first world war. For Ecksteins "Le Sacre du Printemps" is a symbol of tendencies that caused great war.
This version of "Le Sacre du Printemps" was performed in Stockholm, 05.02.2005 by Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Valerij Gergiev.

Igor Stravinsky "Le Sacre du Printemps"

Part I: L'Adoration de la terre
01. Introduction [03:42]
02. Les augures printanieres (Danses des adolescentes) [02:49]
03. Jeu du rapt [01:43]
04. Rondes printanieres [03:38]
05. Jeux des cites rivales [01:42]
06. Cortege du sage [00:44]
07. Adoration de la terre (Le Sage) [00:25]
08. Danse de la terre [01:11]

Part II: Le Sacrifice
09. Introduction [04:28]
10. Cercles mysterieux des adolescentes [03:19]
11. Glorification de l'elue [01:42]
12. Evocation des ancetres [00:52]
13. Action rituelle des ancetres [03:39]
14. Danse sacrale (L'elue) [05:35]
total [35:28]



1 comment:

musanim said...

The last few months, I've been working on an animated graphical score of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. As of a few days ago, it is complete:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02tkp6eeh40
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2y90hH4H7Q

Enjoy!

Stephen Malinowski
Music Animation Machine
stephenmalinowski.com