Overview

Brett Mitchell, conductor
Kirill Gerstein, piano

RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
STRAVINSKY The Rite of Spring

Stravinsky’s primal The Rite of Spring is renowned for inciting a riot at its 1913 Paris debut. The causes are still debated—was it the eccentric asymmetry of the music or Nijinsky’s shocking choreography—and the escalation often exaggerated (objects may have been thrown at the musicians, and a bald man’s head was allegedly drummed upon). Nonetheless, this can’t-miss master work radically changed twentieth-century composition. Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, performed by Kirill Gerstein, completes a program of distinctly Russian flair conducted by Music Director Brett Mitchell.