Prom 57 - Gershwin’s Piano Concerto and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring
Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F Major was on the agenda, as was Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, but first up was the world premiere of a BBC/New York Philharmonic commissioned work by Steven Stucky called Rhapsodies. While I enjoyed it, and it was ten times better than the overly modern pieces that have premiered this year at the Proms I’ve been at, I’m not sure I felt much from it.
Gershwin, however, was perfect and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing, got completely and totally wrapped up in it. I had forgotten how much I loved the quirkiness of his music.
Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was a grand contrast to the first two and the sound was so deep around Royal Albert Hall. It was the first time I’d heard it played live (as with the Gershwin) but with this it sounded so much more alive and different to how it does as a recording. It was, wait for it, a beautiful cacophony of melodic delirium and dissonance and I loved it.
And that is all for tonight . . .
Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was highly controversial when it was first played. Its dischordant melodies lead to withering polemical reviews. Elskein, in a book of the same name, used Stravinsky’s controversial masterpiece as a symbol of the period, a period in which the acient and and the modern clashed, producing the disaster in the disaster of World War I. It is fascinating to read and understand how history, art and culture are so intertwined. And it gives a whole new meaning when listening to pieces such as “Rites of spring when one takes its historical conext into account.