Celebrate the Rite on its Centennial

First performed in Paris on May 29, 1913, the music Igor Stravinsky created for Vaslav Nijinksy's Rite of Spring ballet, and the choreography itself, provoked a riot among the opening night audience.

Today, New England Conservatory celebrates the 100th anniversary of that fateful day in music history by releasing our standing-room-only performance of Rite from a month ago, beginning with tonight's radio broadcast by our partners at WGBH.

WGBH broadcast

Tune in to WGBH-FM, Classical New England 99.5, at 7pm on May 29 for a background program created by the WFMT Radio Network. This includes first-hand recollections from opening night in 1913 all the way to the present day.

Then at 8pm, you will hear NEC's Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood Director of Orchestras, Hugh Wolff, conduct the NEC Philharmonia in their April 24 concert, which centered on Rite of Spring. More on this concert.

The WGBH broadcast will also be available online.

NEC video and audio

As of May 30, New England Conservatory continues to make this performance available. In addition to our YouTube video (above) of the complete performance, you will find audio streams and downloads at our InstantEncore channel.

More Rite of Spring media

Watch videos that include NEC's Entreneurial Musicianship students asking one simple question about Rite of Spring; an interview with conductor Hugh Wolff; and Rite of Spring tips from John Heiss of the NEC faculty, dubbed "the Pitch Doctor" by Stravinsky himself.

Listen to a WGBH radio interview with members of the NEC Philharmonia, who talk about rehearsing and performing Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing.

Read a review of the concert at Boston Musical Intelligencer.

In radio markets outside of Boston, Performance Today will broadcast a Dallas Symphony Orchestra performance of Rite of Spring, conducted by Jaap van Zweden. Greetings to NEC alumni who are members of the DSO!