Ahead of our upcoming performance of The Rite of Spring, Music Director Joanna MacGregor will take a deeper look at Stravinsky’s explosive score with expert Jonathan Cross.
Jonathan is a Professor of Musicology and Student Tutor in Music at Christ Church, Oxford. He has written, lectured and broadcast widely on issues in twentieth-century and contemporary music, and his publications include both the highly acclaimed The Stravinsky Legacy (1998), and a 2015 biography of Stravinsky. In 2021 he produced a series of podcasts with Stravinsky’s publisher Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers to mark the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death.
‘The story of the uproar that accompanied the premiere of The Rite of Spring is well known,’ says Joanna. ‘A near riot broke out at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées premiere on 29 May 1913. So what was it that scandalised Parisian high society?’
Learn more with Joanna and Jonathan as they discuss the history, orchestration and far-reaching influence of this thrilling score.
Then join us on Sunday 22 September to hear The Rite of Spring in person, alongside Tchaikovsky’s sublime Piano Concert No.1.
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