The Rite of Spring Scandal (16 conductors + 2 pianists)

Igor Stravinsky, Glorification of the Chosen One (excerpt from The Rite of Spring)
Performance comparison of 16 different conductors, plus 2 pianists
Other compilations:

0:00 Sir Simon Rattle, London Symphony Orchestra
0:30 Mikko Franck, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
0:57 Andrés Orozco-Estrada, National Youth Orchestra of Colombia
1:24 Valery Gergiev, London Symphony Orchestra
1:59 Pierre Boulez, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala (Milan, 2006)
2:27 Igor Stravinsky, Orchestre Symphonique de Paris (1929)
3:09 Gustavo Dudamel, Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra
3:43 Leonard Bernstein, London Symphony Orchestra
4:11 Sir Andrew Davis, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
4:43 Christian Baldini, Orquesta Estable del Teatro Argentino de La Plata
5:15 Jaap van Zweden, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest
5:55 Michael Tilson Thomas, San Francisco Symphony
6:41 François-Xavier Roth, Les Siècles
7:11 Daniele Gatti, Concertgebouworkest
7:40 Esa-Pekka Salonen, Los Angeles Philharmonic
8:09 Semyon Bychkov, WDR Sinfonieorchester (Cologne)
8:36 Martha Argerich & Akane Sakai (two pianos)

Of all the scandals of the history of art, none is so scandalous as the one that took place on the evening of 29 May 1913 in Paris at the premiere of Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring.

The Rite descended into a riot, the story goes. Magnified in the retelling, it has acquired the unquestionable certainty that only legend can have. Everyone simply "knows" that there was a riot.

But is it possible to separate fact from fiction?

Was there violence?
Dozens of witnesses left accounts of the evening, but they tend to say different things. According to some, blows were exchanged, objects were thrown at the stage, and at least one person was challenged to a duel.

There is no doubt that there was a lot of noise - contemporary press reports make this clear. Esteban Buch, director of studies at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Science in Paris, says it's difficult to deny that "something really extraordinary" took place - but he points out that if you look at the accounts given over the months, years and decades that followed, "the riot" acquires greater importance as time goes on.

The Rite and the riot become entangled in memory making this event, as he puts it, "some kind of gate to modernism, to the 20th Century".

How soon did the trouble start?
Lydia Sokolova, one of the dancers on the stage that night, said the audience came prepared.

"They had got themselves all ready. They didn't even let the music be played for the overture. As soon as it was known that the conductor was there, the uproar began," she said in an interview recorded in 1965.

There had been some noise two weeks earlier at the premiere of Debussy's ballet, Jeux, and critics had heaped abuse on Vaslav Nijinsky's choreography. Now Nijinsky had choreographed the Rite of Spring - rumoured to be the last word in Russian primitivism or modernist chic, depending who you believed. So part of the audience may well have been predisposed to be outraged.

"There was an existing tremor in the air against Nijinsky before any curtain went up," says Stephen Walsh, professor of music at Cardiff University. Others say the trouble began with the start of the overture and its strangled bassoon melody, and other strange sounds never before conjured from an orchestra.

Igor Stravinsky, for his part, said the storm only really broke after the overture, "when the curtain opened on the group of knock-kneed and long-braided Lolitas jumping up and down".

Were the police called?
It's hard to say at this point what role the police played, if any. One account has it that about 40 people were arrested, which would suggest police arriving in large numbers.
Another witness points out that it was standard practice for some police to be present at Parisian theatres at the time. Esteban Buch visited the Paris prefecture archives to check police records, only to find that the relevant file was missing. His hunch is that there were a couple of policemen in the theatre as a matter of routine "and they just witnessed the scene without doing much".

For further reading:

(Russian: Весна священная, romanized: Vesna svyashchennaya, lit. 'sacred spring'; French: Le Sacre du printemps)
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ComSE (/strəˈvɪnski/; Russian: Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский
Strawinsky

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[kimsteel]

That 11/4 bar is the most heavy metal thing written. Some of these versions are particularly savage, almost like: the virgin's gonna die, all the maidens are gonna die, the whole village is gonna die... 😱😱😱😱

[johnfowler]

@ 0:56 I don't ever recall seeing choreography in an orchestra before. After the shock, I kind of liked it.

[tidnid]

The Colombia youth orchestra take the cake - they are incredible

[semhak]

I wish Stravinsky could see this. To see his music celebrated and performed so absolutely furiously and with such earthly spirit. Especially hearing recordings from his time when orchestras clearly weren't ready for his music.

[wormswithteeth]

Stravinsky conducting: *I'm just vibing*

[jasonc]

Those staccato timpani mallets in San Francisco are intense! Also, the Colombia Youth Orchestra is rocking it!

[Theloniouspunk]

Hearing Stravinsky as conductor is very cool.

[schneiderFFF]

I don't think i have counted to 11 in 9 minutes this many times

[IceOfPhoenix]

That youth orchestra performance was the most intense

[erringman]

I like the Stravinsky version, you can really hear the rests and the details of the orchestration that are lost when it's played faster. I'd like to hear a modern orchestra take an energetic approach at that tempo.

[domeonce]

National youth Orchestra of Colombia~1:00. The ENTIRE ORCHESTRA is FLAILING, almost out of their seats! Plus I like the thing the strings were doing with their bows building up to the first blast! The power and energy of YOUTH!!

[AtlantaMusicCritic]

Great compilation. The National Youth Orchestra of Columbia is aggressive and untamed! Loved it.

[mrclean]

This is such an incredibly cool compilation! As an HS orchestra director, I'm always trying to get my students to listen critically to different interpretations of the same piece, so they "see" there's not just one way to play something. I will be sharing this with them. Thank you so much!

[design]

Jesus H Christ, the Bernstein one takes it on the visuals. Terrifying.

[dieterammann]

Although I very much appreciated the collaboration with Gergiev and especially with Pierre Boulez, the first place here goes to the National Youth Orchestra of Colombia.

[alexpaxton]

I could watch orchestra clip comparisons all day. Faves were Bernstein and Salonen

[maxwellhanks]

The silence at 6:53 is like no other, I feel some of the others seem to rush straight into the section.

[nogo]

Thank you so much for this, my favorite orchestral piece. I had the pleasure (and frustration) of singing under Stravinsky (Symphony of Psalms) a million decades ago & found him a really confusing conductor. It was so interesting to see those same head-scratchers in the Stravinsky conducted piece. His other recordings of the same pieces often really differ from year to year…almost as though he’s making edits to his own music throughout his long career. No matter. Le Sacre changed music, dance & theater forever & I love him for this.

[MurdMusic]

It's a bit sad that Stravinsky's recording is the worst among these. He probably couldn't get what he wanted from the orchestras of that time :(

[kaleidoscopio]

Bernstein is the just went into the craziness of the piece with no fear 😁