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One hundred years ago, in May 1913, Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, composer Igor Stravinsky, and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky unleashed an artistic tsunami whose shock waves are still being felt a century later. Stravinsky's Rite of Spring was visceral, violent, garish, primitive in its explosion of polyrhythms, dissonances, and shrieking orchestral effects. Its use of traditional Russian folk material has been described by music critic Alex Ross as "pulverized motivic bits, piled up in layers, and reassembled in cubistic collages and montages." At the premiere in Paris, conducted by Pierre Monteux, there was literally a riot.
On April 24, 2013 Hugh Wolff will lead the New England Conservatory Philharmonia in a performance marking this significant anniversary.