Keeping Score: Revolutions in Music – Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring
I have recently posted more often on the music of Stravinsky. I have come to realize what an enormous impact that man has had on the development of musical expression and on 20th century composition.
Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring is one of many works that created such impact; and Michael Tilson Thomas does a fantastic job presenting the musical and social elements that went into this masterpiece of composition. This is a very intelligent and entertaining piece of work; beautifully filmed and edited.
This DVD goes through some of the background of Russian ballet and Russian composers from the late Romantic period; and this leads up to Stravinsky and his Firebird music, followed by a description that covers the radical departure to Rite of Spring. Michael Tilson-Thomas does a fine job in analyzing and presenting the musical material and orchestration of the Rite. What is also remarkable about the DVD is that the viewer gets to see the conductor up front, rather than the usual view in the concert hall.
At the end, we get the full performance version of the complete “Rite of Spring”. The performance is very exciting;
Here’s a video of the performance:
The San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas playing Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”.
If you’d like to purchase this DVD at Amazon, please click on the image below:
Tags: Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas