Inside Classical: Stravinsky's the Rite of Spring

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Arts Documentary hosted by Josie d Arby, published by BBC in 2023 - English narration

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From St David's Hall in Cardiff, Ryan Bancroft conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to kick off their recent season with a pair of works from the turn of the 20th century. Starting with Sergey Rachmaninov's vivaciously virtuosic Third Piano Concerto, with its melancholic but dignified opening theme and rhythmically ferocious and hammering finale, you cannot fail to fall in love with the lush orchestral texture and variety of emotional intensities. Originally premiered in 1909 with the composer at the piano, this great and challenging work is played by the versatile and thrilling young pianist, Yeol Eum Son. Whilst Rachmaninov was in full swing as a much-sought-after concert pianist of the Romantic style, fellow countryman Igor Stravinsky had recently emerged as a great avant-garde composer, well on the road to forging a long creative partnership with ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev. Controversial from the outset, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring still has the power to shock and surprise, as it did at its notorious premiere in Paris. Epic in scale and ferocity, the ballet depicts a pagan ritual in which a chosen sacrificial virgin dances herself to death - the angular contortions and tortured motions are countered by moments of beauty and stillness, reflective of spring and new life.