Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring for Piano Four-Hands

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) The Rite of Spring for Piano Four-Hands Composed in 1912 Performed by Gilbert Kalish (b. 1935) and Wu Han (b. 1959), piano Recorded live August 2006 at the Music@Menlo chamber music festival, St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Palo Alto, California Part I: Adoration of Earth 0:00 I. Introduction 2:58 II. The Augurs of Spring 6:13 III. Ritual of Abductions 7:33 IV. Spring Rounds 10:31 V. Ritual of the Two Rival Tribes 12:11 VI. Procession of the Oldest and Wisest 12:46 VII. The Kiss of the Earth 13:08 VIII. The Dancing Out of the Earth Part II: The Sacrifice 14:20 IX. Introduction 19:04 X. Mystic Circle of the Young Girls 22:10 XI. The Naming and Honoring of the Chosen One 23:43 XII. Evocation of the Ancestors 24:26 XIII. Ritual Action of the Ancestors 27:43 XIV. Sacrificial Dance Stravinsky composed the piano four-hands version of The Rite of Spring concurrently with its orchestral score, completing the piano reduction in late 1912 while staying in Le Vaudreuil, France. Long before the 1913 Paris premiere by the Ballets Russes, Stravinsky and Claude Debussy (1862-1918) played through the score together on a single piano at Debussy's home in early 1913. Published by Édition Russe de Musique that same year, this reduction served as a rehearsal tool for ballet dancers to master the score's complex meters and polytonal harmonies, while establishing itself as a challenging staple of the four-hand piano repertoire in its own right.