RNCM Symphony Orchestra: The Rite of Spring at the RNCM
Chris Horkan
The RNCM’s French Connections series hots up with the Symphony Orchestra tacking Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Its French connection? The work’s world premiere at Théâtre de Champ-Elysées in 1913 caused such commotion that its dancers were unable to hear the orchestra due to screams of abuse from the audience. Now regarded as an orchestra staple, its avant-garde nature at the time also caused fist fights to break out on that night.
Olivier Messiaen’s Les Offrandes oubliées triptych, written by the 22-year-old recent graduate of the Paris Conservatoire in 1930, also features on this concert’s programme, alongside Bohuslav Martinů’s Rhapsody-Concerto H 337, composed in Paris in 1952 and incorporating styles of the time such as jazz and surrealism.
The concert is preceded by a free talk, with Dr David Horne exploring how The Rite of Spring’s traditional folk influences contrasted with its radical musical language.
