The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps) 1913 (duration: 30 minutes)

Arguably Stravinsky's most important work, arguably his best, and at the time of its
composition arguably the most shockingly controversial work the musical world had yet seen, Stravinsky's ballet about pagan Russia caused quite a stir in the Theatre des Champs-Elysees at its premiere in 1913. Indeed, it was one of the most famous riots in the history
of music. 

Probably his earliest and therefore most accurate account of the work's premiere can be found in Stravinsky's 1936 Autobiography: 

         " ...the Sacre du Printemps was given on May 28 at the evening performance. The complexity of my score had demanded a great number of rehearsals, which Monteux had conducted with his usual skill and attention. As for the actual performance, I am not in a position to judge, as I left the auditorium [i.e., to stand in the wings] at the first bars of the prelude, which had at once evoked derisive laughter. I was disgusted. These demonstrations, at first isolated, soon became general, provoking counter-demonstrations and very quickly developing into a terrific uproar. During the whole performance I was at Nijinsky's side in the wings [Nijinsky was the choreographer]. He was standing on a chair, screaming "sixteen, seventeen, eighteen"--they had their own method of counting to keep time. Naturally, the poor dancers could hear nothing by reason of the row in the auditorium and the sound of their own dance steps. I had to hold Nijinsky by his clothes, for he was furious, and ready to dash on stage at any moment and create a scandal. Diaghilev [the impresario] kept ordering the electricians to turn the lights on or off, hoping in that way to put a stop to the noise. That is all I can remember about that first        performance. Oddly enough, at the dress rehearsal, to which we had, as usual, invited a number of actors, painters, musicians, writers, and the most cultured representatives of society, everything had gone off peacefully, and I was very far from expecting such an outburst."

After a confusion of rustic pipes, hailing the arrival of Spring, the curtain rises to reveal a gathering of an ancient, Slavonic tribe at the bottom of a sacred hill. A village celebration is in progress: a witch tells the future, there is a "marriage by capture", round dances and
games. A grand procession of the "Oldest-wisest" members of the village is followed by the more solemn rite of the "adoration of the earth" in which the Sage devoutly kisses the hill, which has already begun to flower. In part II, after a mysterious introduction, a dance of virgins begins at the foot of the hill. One among them is selected to be the sacrifice and glorified by the tribe. Clad in a bearskin, to show that the bear was man's ancestor, she dances herself to death at the foot of the hill as the wise men dedicate her sacrifice to the god Yarillo.