program
Petrushka (1947 revision)
Violin Concerto
The Rite of Spring
Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring
Stravinsky's Petrushka
performances
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Event Description
Igor Stravinsky hit music like a thunderclap. With Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913), he sent shockwaves that continue to ripple through music today. Driven, frenetic, and strikingly original, each score is as unique in character as it is wondrous. Hear these seminal works conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, and Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto played by the “rapturously lyrical” (The Guardian) Leonidas Kavakos.
Doors open at 6:15pm on 9/27-9/29 and 12:15pm on 9/30.
At a Glance
STRAVINSKY
Stravinsky’s breakthrough to fame arrived when he embarked on a string of collaborations with the ballet impresario Serge Diaghilev, whose Ballets Russes—launched in Paris in 1909—quickly became identified with the cutting edge of the European arts scene.
Petrushka 1911/1947 | 34 mins
When Stravinsky wrote the music to Petrushka (1911/1947), he imagined “a distinct picture of a puppet, suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra.” The vibrancy of this spirited score captures this to a T. LISTEN FOR: The puppet’s mad flurry provokes the orchestra to “retaliate with menacing trumpet blasts . . . resulting in a terrific noise that reaches its climax and ends in the sorrowful and querulous collapse of the poor puppet.”
Violin Concerto 1931 | 22 mins
Samuel Dushkin, who commissioned and premiered Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto (1934), recalled that one day at lunch, Stravinsky wrote down [a] chord and asked me if it could be played. I had never seen a chord with such an enormous stretch . . . and I said ‘No.’ Stravinsky replied sadly, Quel dommage [What a pity].” When Dushkin went home and realized that it actually could be played, he immediately called the composer, who completed the concerto in six months. LISTEN FOR: The chord that was so casually brought up at lunch begins each of the work’s four movements—Stravinsky called it his “passport” to the music.
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) 1913/1947 | 35 mins
The events of May 29, 1913—the premiere of Le Sacre du printemps (1913/1947) and the infamous audience riot that followed—catapulted Stravinsky, and modern music, onto a path from which there was no turning back. He described this controversial piece as a representation of pagan Russia, insisting that “it is unified by a single idea: the mystery and great surge of creative power of spring.” LISTEN FOR: There are many connections to folk music, including a Lithuanian tune that is the basis of the incredibly famous, astonishingly difficult high-pitched bassoon solo that opens the piece.
JEANETTE YU is Editorial Director at the San Francisco Symphony.
Concert Extras
“Stravinsky: The Man. The Myth. The Riot”
Stravinsky. He was the one everybody watched, the trailblazer, the pathfinder, the very exemplar of the 20th-century composer. Igor Stravinsky’s epochal collaboration with Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, and his long association with the SF Symphony and its music directors is the subject of the September exhibit. Visit the exhibit at Davies Symphony Hall from September 10–30 in the First Tier Lobby.
Pre-Concert Screening
Michael Tilson Thomas was not only influenced by Stravinsky, he knew him. Get the insider info at a special pre-concert screening of Keeping Score/ Rite of spring starting at 6:30pm.
Art Haus Collective Presentation
The SF Symphony joins creative forces with Art Haus Collective, an organization dedicated to bringing edgy, spectacular performances of classical and contemporary works into unique spaces. Experience Stravinsky’s music through electrifying choreography as Art Haus Collective artists perform as part of this must-see pre-concert event located in the First Tier Lobby beginning at 7pm
