Mats Ek on The Rite of Spring:
“Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinski, premiered in Paris in 1913. It was a major scandal that triggered indignation among the audience, in which the rage of these gatekeepers of the status quo sounded like the squeals of stuck pigs. Shortly afterwards however, their shouts were turned to cheers and Stravinsky was carried on the shoulders of the jubilant crowd to the Arc de Triomphe.
Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring is perhaps the most important musical work in the 20th century to date. Since its inception, it has constantly attracted new interpreters. His music is a staple that is enough for everyone, it never ceases to inspire.
Stravinsky himself had no aesthetic or philosophical guidelines while he wrote The Rite of Spring. He also did not want to use Russian folklore or local color in the tonal language. Instead, he simply ‘wrote down what he heard’.
He had a vision in which he had saw a girl dancing in fire. In the sparsely worded synopsis, he described an ancient peasant society in which a bride is chosen to be married in the spring time. She becomes a sacrificial figure by dancing herself to death.
Her death was a prerequisite or condition for spring. Death becomes resurrection at the same time as existence is reordered through the changing of the seasons.I have not felt bound to make The Rite of Spring in a predetermined way, but tried to shape what I saw from my inner vision as I heard the music. For me, it is about change and about the cost of this change.”