Spring music

Officially it's spring, but with the weather still feeling like winter it's difficult to tell. So I've been listening to music that does remind me of spring because we need to get our sunshine from somewhere. Here are a few of my favourites (some of these are overtly related to spring, some much less so, but I hope you enjoy all of them nonetheless): 

Claude Debussy - "Rondes des Printemps" from Images


Igor Stravinsky - "Spring Rounds" from The Rite of Spring


Dmitri Shostakovich - "Folk Feast" from The Gadfly


Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Easter Festival Overture


Mieczyslaw Weinberg - I Allegro risoluto and II Lento from Sinfonietta No.1


John Adams - The Chairman Dances

Igor Stravinsky - Le Sacre du Printemps

Hi everyone. Sorry that it's been so long since my last update! I do have some rather wonderful news though, I'm gonna start writing reviews for the amazing Bachtrack.com! My first one is already up on the site, it's a review of Shostakovich's 13th Symphony performed by the Radio Philharmonic, Dmitri Slobodeniouk, Sergei Alheksashkin and the Groot Omroepkoor. You can read it here.

But now, back to business. Today I want to talk about a piece that I really should've talked about way sooner. It's Stravinsky's famous ballet Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring). It's one of my absolute favourite pieces of music ever, it's so wonderfully exciting and rhythmical and just all sorts of amazing. I've also never met anyone who doesn't like it! (Although it may take some getting used to.) But before I say anything else, just watch this video:

Not only is this one of the most exciting moments of Le Sacre, it also shows how badass Esa-Pekka Salonen is! Here is the entire piece:


Pt.I: Introduction


Pt.I: Augurrs of Spring, Ritual of Abduction, Spring Rounds, Ritual of the River Tribes, Procession of the Sage, Adoration of the Earth, Dance of the Earth


Pt. II: Introduction, Mystic Circle of Young Girls


Pt. II: Glorification of the Chosen One, Evocation of the Ancestors, Ritual Action of the Ancestors, Sacrificial Dance (The Chosen One).

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was a Russian/French/American composer. He's probably most well-known for his ballets Le Sacre du Printemps, L'Oiseau du Feu (The Firebird) and Petrushka for the Ballet Russes but wrote lots of other amazing things. He grew up in Russia, but moved to France in 1920 and to the US in 1939, and it seems that where he lived really influenced his works, there's a very noticeable difference between works he wrote in Russia (the aforementioned ballets and other works like the AMAZING Les Noces and many more), the works he wrote in Paris (Symphony of Psalms (SO GOOD), Oedipus Rex etc.) and the American ones (In Memorian Dylan Thomas, Agon etc.). Somehow he gets away with lots of different styles though, and he's still almost always recognizable as Stravinsky, which is quite a feat. I'll definitely post lots of other music by him, but if you really enjoy Le Sacre, you should definitely go listen to L'Oiseau du Feu.