Eugene Goossens - Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (1960) [2015 SACD]

• 29 Oct, 16:35
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Artist: Eugene Goossens
Title: Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Year Of Release: 1960 [2015]
Label: King International Inc. / Everest [KKC-4032]
Genre: Classical
Quality: DSD64 image (*.iso) / 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz
Total Time: 00:37:49
Total Size: 1,0 GB (+3%rec.)
WebSite: Album Preview

Probably no musical work of our time has created as much excitement and controversy as has Igor Stravinsky's ballet Le Sacre du Printemps. It is doubtful, too, whether any other composition of the twentieth century has exerted as profound an influence upon modern composers as has this provocative score. Stravinsky has painted these Pictures of Pagan Russia, as he has subtitled the work, with bold strokes on a huge orchestral canvas. Now, for the first time, the brilliant colors and startling rhythmic patterns have been reproduced with equally colorful and startling fidelity by Everest.
"One day, when I was finishing the last pages of L'Oiseau de Feu in St. Petersburg," writes Stravinsky in his revealing autobiography, "I had a fleeting vision which came to me as a complete surprise, my mind at the moment being full of other things. I saw in imagination a solemn pagan rite: sage elders, seated in a circle, watched a young girl dance herself to death. They were sacrificing her to propitiate the god of spring. Such was the theme of the Sacre du Printemps. I must confess that this vision made a deep impression on me, and I at once described it to my friend, Nicholas Roerich, he being a painter who had specialized in pagan subjects. He welcomed my inspiration with enthusiasm, and became my collaborator in this creation. In Paris I told Diaghileff about it, and he was at once carried away by the idea...."
The realization of the idea had to wait, however, until Stravinsky composed what started out as a Konzertstück for piano and orchestra and ended up as his second great ballet Petrouchka (Everest LPBR 6033/SDBR 3033). Once that was out of the way, he began work on Le Sacre du Printemps (the proper translation of Stravinsky's Russian title is not The Rite of Spring, the name by which it is generally known, but Spring's Consecration). He started the composition in 1912 at his estate in Oustiloug, Russia, and completed it early in 1913 in Clarens, Switzerland. Roerich designed the décor for the production of the ballet, which was to be given by Diaghileff's Ballets Russes. To Stravinsky's dismay, Diaghileff assigned the choreography to his star dancer, Vaslav Nijinsky. While the composer had nothing but the greatest admiration for Nijinsky as a performer, he found him almost impossible to work with as a choreographer, since he was quite ignorant of the basic principles either of music or dance design. Nevertheless, many of the ideas compounded jointly by Nijinsky and Stravinsky seem more suited to the choreographic realization of the music than was the later, more abstract dance plan of Leonide Massine.
Stravinsky scored Le Sacre du Printemps for a huge orchestra consisting of two flutes, flute in G, two piccolos, four oboes (one interchangeable with a second English horn), English horn, three clarinets (one interchangeable with a second bass clarinet), clarinet in E flat, bass clarinet, four bassoons (one interchangeable with a second contra-bassoon), contra-bassoon, eight horns (two interchangeable with Bayreuth tubas), four trumpets, trumpet in D, bass trumpet, three trombones, two tubas, four kettledrums, small kettledrum, bass drum, cymbals, tambourine, antique cymbals, triangle, tam-tam, rape guero (scratcher) and strings.
The music of Le Sacre is extremely complex, both rhythmically and harmonically. To ears unattuned to the music of today, it can sound strange and forbidding. It was so far ahead of its time that it took nearly a quarter of a century for the public at large to appreciate its barbaric splendor. Many millions of words had to be written to explain its intricacies to the uninitiated. Today, however, it is listened to from a different vantage point, and this wonderfully imaginative music thrills nearly everyone who hears it.
Such was not the case at the ballet's premiere, which took place at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris on May 29, 1913. The performers were Diaghileff's Ballets Russes, with Pierre Monteux conducting and Nijinsky doubling in the rôles of dancer and choreographer. Let the composer, again in his autobiography, describe what transpired:
"The complexity of my score had demanded a great number of rehearsals, which Monteux had conducted with his usual skill and attention. As for the actual performance, I am not in a position to judge, as I left the auditorium at the first bars of the prelude, which had 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. During the whole performance I was at Nijinsky's side in the wings. He was standing on a chair, screaming 'sixteen, seventeen, eighteen'-they had their own method of counting to keep time. Naturally the poor dancers could hear nothing by reason of the row in the auditorium and the sound of their own dance steps. I had to hold Nijinsky by his clothes, for he was furious, and ready to dash on to the stage at any moment and create a scandal. Diaghileff kept ordering the electricians to turn the lights on or off, hoping in that way to put a stop to the noise. That is all I can remember about that first performance. Oddly enough, at the dress rehearsal, to which we had, as usual, invited a number of actors, painters, musicians, writers, and the most cultured representatives of society, everything had gone off peacefully, and I was very far from expecting such an outburst."


Tracks:

Igor Stravinsky
The Rite of Spring „Le sacre du printemps“

01. Part 1
02. Part 2

Personnel:

London Symphony Orchestra
Eugene Goossens

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