Keeping Score: Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring [Blu-ray]

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony present a special Bluray re-issue of their groundbreaking episode of Rite of Spring from the Keeping Score series, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the premiere of Stravinsky's revolutionary ballet score, presented in stunning Dolby TrueHD 96k upsampled audio.

“Funny thing about revolutions, you never know when or where they’re gonna start. They can be social or political or artistic, and very often it's these artistic or cultural revolutions, revolutions in taste, really, that seem to predict other violent changes in society. That's exactly the case with the Rite of Spring.” With these words Michael Tilson Thomas opens the groundbreaking episode from the San Francisco Symphony’s Keeping Score series.

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 ballet’s shocking music and dance provoked a riot that evening and was soon recognised as perhaps the most revolutionary piece of the 20th century, a reputation it maintains to this day.

In this Blu-ray, MTT and SFS take you from the salons of St. Petersburg to the villages where Stravinsky found inspiration in the earthy 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 Rite of Spring.

Presented for the first time on Blu-ray disc, Keeping Score: Stravinsky features a thought provoking documentary and a brilliant live concert performance of Rite of Spring along with music from The Firebird. The documentary is filmed in standard-definition 16:9 widescreen, with concert performances filmed in high-definition 16:9 widescreen, and presented in optional 5.1 surround sound with Dolby TrueHD 96k upsampling.