The 'Rite' Stuff
IM A BIG fan of the riot in the theater. I started at least one myself, as an uppity punk freshman telling dead-Jew jokes for a captive audience at a New York University talent show. And then there was my career playing in GG Allins band, where every show was pretty much guaranteed to end with an appearance by the local gendarme. None of which, however, puts me in the same league as Igor Stravinsky, who famously whipped the crowd into a frothing frenzy with his ballet The Rite of Spring in Paris back in 1913.
Perceived wisdom is that the crowd, so enraged by the pummeling rhythms and cacophony of the piece, tore the joint to kindling, with fistfights breaking out between patrons outraged at the jagged, primitive rhythms, pronounced dissonance and behavior unbecoming to a bassoon (seriously), and those who thought the whole thing was a gas.
What is sometimes forgotten is that The Rite of Spring (Le sacre du printemps, if you prefer) was originally written as a ballet, and the half-naked Hottentots in tutus jumping up and down that night at the Théatre des Champs-Élysées had as much to do with putting Parisian panties in a bunch as any clanging of the kettle drums or sawing away at the strings. What is almost always forgotten is that after the first night, it was sold out for the rest of the run, and that when Stravinsky returned to Paris the following year for a nonstaged (no Hottentots, just the orchestra) performance, he left on the shoulders of a cheering crowd.
If you have never heard Rite of Spring performed live, youll get your chance next week when Valery Gergiev and the New York Philharmonic finishes a three-week festival of [The Russian Stravinksky] with the big fireworks, and while I can be reasonably sure there wont be a riot, you can bet it will be more exciting than the last five Black Sabbath tours put together.
Gergiev is a terror with the baton the last time I saw him, running the Vienna Phil through Tchaikovskys Fifth Symphony, he was like a matador working a brave bull through every conceivable pass, right up until it was time to plunge in the sword. This guy is the real deal, tougher than leatherhis main gigs are as artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre and the principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, who are no slouches eitherand when he has his way with Rite, it will be like some sort of beautiful, polyrhythmic beast rearing back and breathing fire. And remember, its not just dissonant, it hasas Leonard Bernstein once saidthe best dissonances anyone ever thought up. Take that, Thurston Moore!
>>[THE RUSSIAN STRAVINKSY] Through May 9, Avery Fisher Hall, 10 Lincoln Center Plz., 212-875- 5656; $29 and up.