Sir Simon Rattle and The Rite of Spring

There's an interesting article in this month's BBC music magazine featuring an interview with Sir Simon Rattle as he prepares to conduct Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring'. He describes the occasions he has previously conducted the piece, his working relationship with the Berlin Philharmonic and how he goes about tackling the piece. There is also an insert with a history of the piece, including a summary of the fateful première.

It's interesting to read how when the piece was premièred 100 years it was considered impossible to conduct and play, yet now it is considered a staple in a professional orchestra's repertoire and even amateur orchestras perform it; I played it in my university orchestra and have never had to concentrate so much in my life! I think this goes to show how much modern classical music has pushed the boundaries and abilities of professional players, to the extent that later in his life Stravinsky suggested transposing the opening bassoon solo up a semitone so it sounds as difficult as it did when it was first performed.

Rattle also talks about the difficulties of conducting it and interpreting how Stravinsky intended the music to sound; he notes in particular how even Stravinsky wasn't happy with what he had written given the number of revisions he made. Revisions are something I've always associated with late Romantic music onwards, but it might be that we don't have records of early composer's revisions rather than it being something which only started occurring more recently. Rattle also notes that, whilst the piece has some interesting rhythms, they aren't difficult in themselves, it's how to phrase them into larger units and create a harmonic line from them which is the challenge; I liked the concept of a harmonic line based on rhythmic grouping.

Something which Rattle said which struck a chord was how we also assume what the composer wrote was what he intended, yet we forget that composers are fallible just like anyone else; Rattle tells a story about how he was rehearsing a piece with the composer present where it was marked double the speed when half the speed was much more reasonable and what the composer actually intended. He also talks about how Stravinsky struggled to write on paper the music he heard in his head; this is something I could strongly relate to.

Instrument Research - YouTube Symphony Orchestra

As part of my research for part 2 I found the following videos useful:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF852224BFF35A1BE

These are a series of master classes by members of professional orchestras, such as the Berlin Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra, about their instrument to introduce a series of audition excerpts for when the YouTube Symphony Orchestra was set up.

Not only did these videos show off the tone colour of the instruments introduced in section 2, there are also videos for other instruments in the woodwind family, such as Cor Anglais, Eb Clarinet and Piccolo. It's interesting to listen to the professionals talk about the difficulties of playing the excerpts, despite making it sound effortless when they play them.

There are also other videos for most instruments in a symphonic orchestra, which will no doubt useful when they are introduced later on.