{"id":1989,"date":"2021-04-13T00:00:24","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T04:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=1989"},"modified":"2021-04-13T00:00:29","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T04:00:29","slug":"a-gripping-new-version-of-the-rite-of-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2021\/04\/a-gripping-new-version-of-the-rite-of-spring.html","title":{"rendered":"A Gripping New Version of The Rite of Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"720\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1280 \/ 720;\" width=\"1280\" controls src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/RiteOfSpringPartTwo.mov\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Igor Stravinsky\u2019s&nbsp;<em>The Rite of Spring<\/em>&nbsp;might at first glance seem an unlikely candidate for keyboard transcription. It calls for a huge orchestra, colorfully deployed. But the percussive ferocity of the writing, its sheer physicality, is an irresistible lure for pianists.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stravinsky himself left a piano-duet version. It\u2019s actually the first version, part of the compositional process and never intended as a concert work. But a concert work it has become, typically played on two pianos. Solo piano versions have also been created. At PostClassical Ensemble\u2019s <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postclassical.com\/immersion-experiences\">\u201cInterpreting Stravinsky\u201d festival<\/a><\/strong> of 2011, we heard the four-hand version (on two pianos), and also a version of the closing&nbsp;<em>Danse sacrale<\/em>&nbsp;in a version for four pianos and percussion. We also heard the&nbsp;<em>Danse sacrale<\/em>&nbsp;played by Rex Lawson on a pianola \u2013 the complex player-piano that fascinated Stravinsky, and for which he created versions of&nbsp;<em>The Rite of Spring<\/em>&nbsp;and other symphonic scores, in addition to an&nbsp;<em>Etude<\/em>&nbsp;(1917) specifically conceived for pianola.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the past year \u2013 during Covid \u2013 the pianist Alexander Korsantia has created yet another&nbsp;<em>Rite<\/em>&nbsp;<em>of Spring<\/em>. He has equipped his piano with two additional pedals for the left foot. One activates a bass drum, the other a combination of drum and tambourine. As Korsantia is a pianist of extraordinary attainments, the result is riveting, original, unforgettable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can see Korsantia perform his version of\u00a0<em>The Rite of Spring<\/em>\u00a0at the top of this blog. You can hear him talk about it by accessing the <strong>latest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wwfm.org\/post\/postclassical-russian-stravinsky\">PostClassical webcast<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 our singular series of two-hour shows on the WWFM Classical Network.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The larger topic of this webcast, \u201cThe Russian Stravinsky,\u201d is how to interpret the music of a composer who insisted his music not be interpreted. Korsantia is a product of what I would call a \u201cRussian school\u201d of Stravinsky interpretation that erupted in the 1960s, when the neo-classical Stravinsky first became widely known to Soviet pianists and conductors. They seemingly resisted Stravinsky\u2019s strictures against interpretation, or his Paris polemics that music meant nothing beyond itself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you listen to Stravinsky\u2019s Piano Concerto performed by Alexander Toradze and Valery Gergiev, you aren\u2019t hearing anything like performances of this piece, composed in Paris in 1923-24, once purveyed by the composer. It\u2019s weightier, slower, and in the central Largo more unmistakably religious. It sounds \u201cRussian.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Korsantia is a product of Toradze\u2019s amazing Toradze Piano Studio in South Bend, Indiana. When he performs Stravinsky\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Tango<\/em>&nbsp;(also on our PostClassical webcast), he interpolates the four-note motto of Beethoven\u2019s Fifth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What did Stravinsky himself sound like? Our webcast samples his 1938 recording, with his son Soulima, of Mozart\u2019s C minor Fugue for two pianos. It is an essential point of reference. I would call this the most insolently impersonal Mozart performance ever recorded. It is nothing if not an act of interpretation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also sample, on our webcast, Rex Lawson\u2019s pianola performance of the&nbsp;<em>Dance sacrale<\/em>&nbsp;\u2013 again from PCE\u2019s Stravinsky festival. And we hear Stravinsky performing his Piano Sonata on a Duo-art piano roll. PCE Music Director Angel Gil-Ordonez, encountering this performance for the first time, found it &#8220;less musical than a pianola&#8221; \u2013 and that memorable response, too, is part of our webcast.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>George Vatchnadze, another Toradze Studio product, next performs Stravinsky\u2019s Sonata \u2013 using an edition prepared by Soulima after his father\u2019s death. In a preface, Soulima advises interpreters of this work to ignore his father\u2019s strictures against interpretation \u2013 and George does, thoroughly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, we hear Angel conducting PostClassical Ensemble in a performance of Stravinsky\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Dumbarton Oaks<\/em>&nbsp;Concerto in which the slow movement is much slower than Stravinsky prescribed. The result is memorably droll. The entire reading exudes a lyricism at odds with \u201cStravinsky style.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I would add that Stravinsky\u2019s own recordings of his music, as conductor, are outstanding \u2013 more robust that what we hear from conductors like Pierre Boulez and Esa-Pekka Salonen. They project what George Balanchine called the \u201cdance element\u201d in Stravinsky \u2013 an earthy physicality to set the body moving. But they aren\u2019t &#8220;definitive&#8221; &#8212; the last word. As Korsantia remarks during the webcast discussion, there comes a time when a parent must relinquish his offspring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>THE RUSSIAN STRAVINSKY \u201cPOSTCLASSICAL\u201d WEBCAST \u2013 A Listener\u2019s Guide:&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Part One:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>5:16: Igor and Soulima Stravinsky perform Mozart\u2019s Fugue in C minor (1938)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>18:16: Danse sacrale from&nbsp;<em>The Rite of Spring<\/em>, performed by Alexander Korsantia (solo piano and drum)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>26:23: Stravinsky talks about&nbsp;<em>The Rite of Spring<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>30:02: Another excerpt from Korsantia\u2019s<em>&nbsp;Rite of Spring<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>37:12: Stravinsky\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Tango&nbsp;<\/em>performed by Korsantia<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>46:10 Giya Kancheli\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Instead of Tango<\/em>&nbsp;performed by George Vatchnadze<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Part Two:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>00:00: Stravinsky performed his Piano Sonata<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>21:32: George Vatchnadze performs Stravinsky\u2019s PIano Sonata<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>47:44: Angel Gil-Ordonez conducts Stravinsky\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Dumbarton Oaks<\/em>&nbsp;Concerto, with PostClassical Ensemble<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Igor Stravinsky\u2019s&nbsp;The Rite of Spring&nbsp;might at first glance seem an unlikely candidate for keyboard transcription. It calls for a huge orchestra, colorfully deployed. But the percussive ferocity of the writing, its sheer physicality, is an irresistible lure for pianists.&nbsp; Stravinsky himself left a piano-duet version. It\u2019s actually the first version, part of the compositional process [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-w5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1989"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1995,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989\/revisions\/1995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}