Re: Glass is a Pane

[Bradley Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

At 10:26 PM 12/18/00 -0500, Elmer Elevator wrote:
>  One of the things about
> classical music which always fascinates me is its capacity to generate
> fistfights
> in the lobby of the concert hall. Is it really true that fistfights broke
> out at
> the premiere of The Rite of Spring / le Sacre du Printemps?

I grew up with a Pierre Monteux LP of that piece, and the back cover
includes this essay by Monteux, who had conducted the premiere:

"(...) With only Diaghileff and myself as audience [in 1912], Stravinsky
sat down to play a piano reduction of the entire score.  Before he got very
far I was convinced he was raving mad.  Heard this way, without the color
of the orchestra which is one of its greatest distinctions, the crudity of
the rhythms was emphasized, its stark primitiveness underlined.  The very
walls resounded as Stravinsky pounded away, occasionally stamping his feet
and jumping up and down to accentuate the force of the music.  Not that it
needed such emphasis.

"I was more astounded by Stravinsky's performance than shocked by the score
itself.  My only comment at the end was that such music would surely cause
a scandal.  However, the same instinct that had prompted me to recognize
his genius made me realize that in this ballet he was far, far in advance
of his time and that while the public might not accept it, musicians would
delight in the new, weird though logical expression of dissonance.

"Le Sacre du Printemps was presented in 1913 at the Theatre des
Champs-Elysees in Paris, and cause a scandal it certainly did.  The
audience remained quiet for the first two minutes.  Then came boos and
catcalls from the gallery, soon after from the lower floors.  Neighbors
began to hit each other over the head with fists, canes or whatever came to
hand.  Soon this anger was concentrated against the dancers, and then, more
particularly, against the orchestra, the direct perpetrator of the musical
crime.  Everything available was tossed in our direction, but we continued
to play on.  The end of the performance was greeted by the arrival of
gendarmes.  Stravinsky had disappeared through a window backstage, to
wander disconsolately along the streets of Paris." (...)



Bradley Lehman, Dayton VA
home: http://i.am/bpl or  http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl
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"Music must cause fire to flare up from the spirit - and not only sparks
from the clavier...." - Alfred Cortot