Nearly a century after this wild rainforest of sound was performed, The Rite of Spring remains as exhilarating and liberating as music can be. MTT and the San Francisco Symphony show you why.
Thomas and the orchestra are on the mark throughout. The Rite is especially dramatic, precise, and controlled. The lyrical sections of The Firebird music are sweet without being saccharine, and the grand finale has seldom sounded so right. The overall effect is thrilling.
- Rad Bennett, Soundstage.com
In 1913, with Europe on the brink of war, a fashionable Parisian audience reacted with hostile frenzy to the premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s new work, The Rite of Spring. The ballet’s shocking music and dance provoked a riot that evening and soon afterwards was recognized as perhaps the most revolutionary piece of the 20th century. It still has that reputation today.
In this DVD, Michael Tilson Thomas and the musicians of the San Francisco Symphony take you from the salons of St. Petersburg to the villages where Stravinsky found inspiration in the earthly power of Russian folk music and dance. MTT then retraces Stravinsky’s journey to the cultural crossroads of pre-war Paris. There, in collaboration with the great impresario Diaghilev and his star dancer Nijinsky, Stravinsky developed the shocking, erotic, and violent evocation of pagan Russia that became The Rite of Spring.
DVD Features:
– Live Performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and music from The Firebird by the San Francisco
– Symphony and MTT shot in high definition, presented in 16:9 widescreen and 5.1 surround sound.
– Documentary includes optional closed-caption English subtitles
– Subtitles in German, French, Spanish and Chinese
Blu-ray Features:
– Live Performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and music from The Firebird by the San Francisco Symphony and MTT shot in high definition, presented in 16:9 widescreen and 5.1 surround 96/24 Dolby TrueHD sound.
– Dolby TrueHD is a 100 percent lossless audio format that ensures you’ll experience movies and music that are identical to the studio masters, soundstage mixes, or concert recordings. Besides enabling your sound system to perform to its optimum capability, Dolby TrueHD with Advanced 96k upsampling provides a richer, more natural sounding Blu-ray listening experience from content originally captured at 48KHz. The result is a playback experience that brings you even closer to the original concert performance.
– Documentary includes optional closed-caption English subtitles
– Subtitles in English, Spanish and Chinese (traditional and simplified)
Both the DVD and Blu-ray are Region 0 and work worldwide.
