It can be daunting to listen to Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.” It’s hard to know where and how to break into the 1913 symphony that forever changed classical music with its atonal chords and striking rhythms.
That’s part of the reason why I was looking forward to Sunday’s “Beyond the Score” presentation at Seattle Symphony.
I was expecting a multi-media lecture. Beyond the Score, an innovative classical music program developed in Chicago, promised to help offer depth and understanding to the piece before the symphony played it through after an intermission.
What wasn’t clear was that the hour-long lecture involved the entire symphony. To illustrate the history and development of Stravinsky’s break-through score, the symphony played bits and pieces as two narrators read an easy-to-understand, layman’s history of “Rite of Spring.”
The presentation included a video element too, but the real benefit came from the nearly 60 segments played by the orchestra under the direction of Seattle’s new maestro, Ludovic Morlot.
After intermission Morlot lead the orchestra through Stravisnky’s masterpiece, a symphony that Aaron Copeland called the best of the century. On Sunday, it sounded fresh, immediate, and thanks to my new-found knowledge, much more accessible and enjoyable. Rather than be put off by the striking sounds of the symphony, the listener was invited to understand how Stravinsky chose the various elements and why he put together the components.
I’d highly recommend the Beyond the Score series, which continues in Seattle at 2 p.m. on March 4 with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27, played and conducted by Jeffrey Kahane and then at 2 p.m. April 15 when Peter Oundjian conducts Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.
For more information, go to wwwseattlesymphony.org..
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