For more than a year, Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" has been frequently performed on the stage of the National Centre for the Performing Arts concert hall by major orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Orchestra of the Lucerne Festival and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The upcoming "Spring Festival: Dream Back to 1913" French Century Orchestra Concert, which will be held at the National Centre for the Performing Arts on June 3, will give audiences the opportunity to hear the most "original" "Spring Festival". French conductor François Xavier Ross will lead the French Orchestra of the Century, founded by him, to recreate the musical appearance of the premiere of "The Rite of Spring" in an "archaeological" manner, in addition to the famous works of French Impressionist composers Debussy and Ravel.
On May 29, 1913, Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" premiered at the newly inaugurated Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in France. Unexpectedly, this work, which represents the pagan "Festival of Spring" with its original music and dance techniques, quickly caused a commotion in the audience and caused a strong dispute between supporters and opponents at the scene of the performance. When the dust settled on the premiere, history proved that the Rite of Spring brought European music and dance into the modernist period, and the restless historical witnesses on the scene also worked with the "avant-garde" "Ox of Spring" to create "the most sensational aesthetic event of the 20th century" that night.
After that historic debut night, Stravinsky made several more revisions to the Charity of Spring. As a result, both the 1947 or 1967 versions of The 1947 and 1967 Rite of Spring that contemporary audiences hear in concerts or recordings are musically different from the premiere version of Yoshinaka. In order to conduct the French Ensemble of the Century to recreate the appearance of the original version of the Rite of Spring, the founder of the orchestra, the French conductor François Xavier Ross, carefully studied the version changes in the score of the Rite of Spring, saying: "The original version of the Rite of Spring was very difficult, and it was impossible for musicians to play it in the way Stravinsky expected. Taking these issues into account, and being encouraged by conductors such as Pierre Monte, the conductor who premiered the work, Ernest Anseme, who conducted the first edition of the Rite of Spring, Stravinsky modified the instrumentation, rhythm, etc. Therefore, I am very pleased to be able to present our research on this masterpiece of the 20th century through the concert."
In the concert, the audience can not only hear the 1913 version of the "Rite of Spring", but also the instruments used by the orchestra's musicians are "historical instruments" from the early 20th century. According to François Xavier Ross, the strings, woodwinds, brasses, and percussion of a hundred years ago were very different from today's instruments in terms of construction and timbre, for example: "Bassoon was not yet equipped with the octave keys for playing the legendary melody at the beginning of the "Spring Festival". Octave keys were later invented to make solos in the treble range easier. Therefore, it is obvious how painful the bassoon players of the time were playing the opening solo. Strings are equally noteworthy, as with all orchestras of the period, using sheep gut strings, which add a surprisingly coarse tone to metal strings. In addition to this, François Xavier Ross and the orchestra will take the contemporary audience back to the opening night of "the most sensational aesthetic event of the 20th century" in terms of playing style and technique.
In this concert, François Xavier Ross and the French Century Orchestra will perform "The Rite of Spring", as well as Debussy's "Pastoral Afternoon Prelude", "The Game" and Ravel's "Round Dance". It is worth mentioning that "The Rite of Spring", "Pastoral Afternoon Prelude" and "Game" were all choreographed by the legendary 20th-century "god of dance" Nijinsky, and the premiere of "Game" was only two weeks earlier than "Spring Festival". It is believed that these "avant-garde" works created more than 100 years ago will surely bring a different sense of historical heaviness to the audience under the interpretation of François Xavier Ross and the French Philharmonic Orchestra of the Century, which is unique in the 21st century music scene.