Liverpool Philharmonic, one of the UK’s most forward-looking music organisations.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

The Rite of Spring

Friday 24 May 2013 7:30 pm
Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

Book Tickets

Paris, May 1913: and with 30 minutes of explosive sound, Igor Stravinsky blew 20th-century music sky-high. That first performance of The Rite of Spring ended in chaos – and we’re still feeling the aftershock today. The Rite remains one of the most thrillingly physical experiences in all music, and now, 100 years after that incredible first night, where the work literally caused a riot, Vasily Petrenko and the Orchestra prepare to unleash hell all over again.

It’s the shattering climax of a concert that recreates the original programme of that incredible night at the Ballets Russes, from the Russian colour of Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances to the silken beauty of Debussy’s Prélude.

Classic Intro 6.15pm

Paul Griffiths discusses Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Paul worked for thirty years as a music critic in London and New York. He is known particularly as a writer on new and recent music, his Modern Music and After, now in its third edition, being the standard work on music since 1945.

He wrote the volume on Stravinsky for the Master Musicians series and has been commissioned by the Sacher Foundation to contribute to a centenary volume on The Rite of Spring. Find out more about Classic Intros.

Please note: this Classic Intro was originally scheduled for the Thursday 23 May performance.

This concert will finish at approx. 8.55pm.