The first performance of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring on May 29, 1913, was greeted by a riot. As he told the story almost half a century later, he was as shocked by the audience's reaction as some listeners were by the spectacle. Apparently it was the choreography, more than the music, that provoked the audience, and ever since the piece has usually been performed in concert rather than as ballet.
...
That the first performance of Le Sacre du Printemps was attened by a scandal must be known to everybody. Strange as it may seem, however, I was unprepared for the explosion myself. The reactions of the musicians who came to the orchestra rehearsals were without intimation of it and the stage spectacle did not appear likely to precipitate a riot...
Mild protests against the music could be heard from the very beginning of the performance. Then, when the curtain opened on the group of knock-kneed and long-braided Lolitas jumping up and down [Danses des adolescentes], the storm broke. Cries of "Ta gueule" ["Shut up!"] came from behind me. I heard Florent Schmitt shout "Taisez-vous garces du seizieme" ["Be quite, you bitches of the sixteenth"]; the "grace" of the sixteenth arrondissement [the most fashionable residential district of Paris] were, of course, the most elegant ladies in Paris. The uproar continued, however, and a few minutes later I left the hall in a rage; I was sitting on the right near the orchestra, and I remember slamming the door. I have never again been that angry. The music was so familiar to me; I loved it, and I could not understand why people who had not yet heard it wanted to protest in advance. I arrived in a fury backstage, where I saw Diaghilev flicking the house lights in a last effort to quiet the hall. For the rest of the performance I stood in the wings behind Nijinsky holding the tails of his frac, while the he stood on a chair shouting number to the dancers, like a coxswain.
From Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Expositions and Development (New York: Doubleday, 1962) 159-64.
Reference:
J. Peter Burkholder, Donald J. Grout and Cladue V. Palisca - A History of Western Music (Seventh Edition 2006) p.824
p.s.
今天終於購得卡拉揚 (Herbert von Karajan) 指揮柏林管弦樂團 (Berliner Philharmoniker)的「春之祭」CD。同碟更有穆索斯基 (Modest Mussorgsky) 的「圖畫展覽會」(Picture at an Exhibition)。本來只打算於旺角四處漫無目的逛逛走走，最後竟於無心插柳的情況下，以68元購得此二手CD，實在喜出望外，最重要是︰「又平又靚又正」。
p.p.s.
我一直想買的是「春之祭」CD，誰指揮都無所謂。有大師卡拉揚的演出，當然是最好的。
