Stravinsky - The Rite Of Spring [Dutoit-Orchestre Symphonique De Montreal] 

I hated this work the first time i listened to it [Abbado DG i think], it frustrated me with a few good ideas, but instead of repeating and unfolding such ideas, it kept chopping and changing, Stravinsky almost seemed to not want to play a nice tune, so whenever something melodious would surface in this soup, he would immediately quash it with some dissonant rhythm, but in delving into Jazz, i've learnt that rhythms [even without melody] are still music, and to highlight the primeval and tribal 'drumming', we get this vision that Stravinsky had for some uncivilised society, and deep down it's great stuff, very percussive, even the strings, this disc appeared in my Blog very early on [25th February 2010].

Charles Dutoit is Swiss, he's now 76, and he made this recording in 1984, the front cover shows a painting by Henri Matisse called 'La Danse', it looks to be three naked girls , and two naked guys dancing in a circle, the warm colours of their bodies are offset by the cold colours of the background, usually i give paintings for booklet covers a bit of a thumbs down, but i really like this painting, it's primeval like the music inside, they perfectly go well together.

Where to start in explaining my thoughts about what i really liked!, The Rite is so involving, there's so many things going on, on this recording it only has two tracks for part A & B, this can be quite annoying when you want to zoom in on a certain section, so here's my synopsis of the best parts,

4A Spring Rounds [8:09-11:54] the warbling woodwinds at the beginning are very evocative, but it's the bass tread of the whole piece that gets me [8:36+], of course it's very incremental the way it's built up, Stravinsky shows a great use of woodwinds here, warblings galore, then out of nowhere the crash of the drums, and the superb grating dissonance of the brass [10:14+], and tacked on the end a frantic and scary forte [11:04-11:21], preceded by some alarmed woodwind birdcalls, and it brings us back to the beginning of those warbling sad birds, again even more evocative.
3B Glorification Of The Earth [8:02-9:39] one of my most favourite moments of the whole work, it's packed full of the most incredible rhythms and forces, the relentless pounding of the tribal drums before the beginning is superb [7:56-8:01], and the whoops of those whipped up clarinets are great, shrieking brass [8:34+], but it's the rhythms afterward that's really great [8:50+] pizzicato strings with i believe a bass clarinet bleating out.
4B Evocation Of The Ancestors [9:39-10:24] the last half of Part Two is the best, and this is just a short piece, loud rolling timpani, woodwind rhythms,
5B Ritual Action Of The Ancestors [10:24-14:14] the noise subsides, and there's a plaintive oboe and flute duo, and in the background the brass dissonance appears [11:39+], and then it explodes [12:16+] in a brass melee, but nothing seems to last for long, Stravinsky throwing all sorts of things into the concoction, i love the huge outburst with the tam tam [13:00+], and at the end deep warblings from the woodwind [13:43+], and i guess it's a bass clarinet,
6B Sacrificial Dance [14:14-19:00] and onto its apotheosis, the final sacrifice, the longest section, bringing together a lot of the ideas previously heard throughout, a real cacophony of sound, i love the way Stravinsky gets the different instruments to 'agree in their discord'!, the superb use of drums.

Here's Charles Dutoit conducting The Rite Of Spring On YouTube, Part One, and Part Two.

Stravinsky - The Rite Of Spring [Dutoit-Orchestre Symphonique De Montreal]

When i first heard this work many moons ago, i was not ready for it, i thought Classical music was about tunes and melodies, something you can whistle, but this is full of rhythms and dynamics, seems like the first audience at the premiere weren't ready for it either, but once you get into those primeval beats, then you're hooked all the way to the Sacrificial Dance.

On the cover of the booklet is a painting by Henri Matisse, called 'The Dance', painted in 1910, roughly three years before the premiere of Stravinsky's work, it fits in perfectly, Art and Music make perfection.

Of course Stravinsky's Ballet is a visual as well as audio, but the music stands up on its own, the section i really did enjoy is in Part Two, 'The Naming And Honouring Of The Chosen One' [7:56-9:40], starts off with pagan beats on the drum [7:56-8:01], very effective, and then there's this sharp quick upward shrieks from the woodwind, while the strings use this pulsating rhythm [8:01-8:33], the brass comes in screaming, while the strings pizzicato an ominous pulse, with what sounds like the bassoon muttering monotonous notes [8:34-9:14], and then the beginning returns [9:14-9:38], it's an aural tour de force, and tremendously exciting.

Here's Dutoit conducting Part Two on YouTube.