Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky

И́горь Фёдорович Страви́нский

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky

Весна священная

The Rite of Spring

Ballet and orchestral concert work by Stravinsky.

Written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes company.

The original choreography was by Vaslav Nijinsky, with stage designs and costumes by Nicholas Roerich.

Stravinsky was a young, virtually unknown composer when Diaghilev recruited him to create works for the Ballets Russes. The Rite was the third such project, after the acclaimed Firebird (1910) and Petrushka (1911). The concept behind The Rite of Spring, developed by Roerich from Stravinsky's outline idea, is suggested by its subtitle, "Pictures of Pagan Russia in Two Parts."

Stravinsky's score contains many novel features for its time, including experiments in tonality, metre, rhythm, stress and dissonance. Analysts have noted in the score a significant grounding in Russian folk music, a relationship Stravinsky tended to deny. The music has influenced many of the 20th-century's leading composers, and is one of the most recorded works in the classical repertoire.

The premiere was May 29, 1913