Performing Rites: how Stravinsky’s Sacre du printemps still shocks

Premiere of Le Sacre du printemps (1913)

Tamara Rojo

Vasily Petrenko

Francesca Velicu in Pina Bausch's Le Sacre du printemps

English National Ballet in Pina Bausch's Le Sacre du printemps

Igor Stravinsky and Vaslav Nijinsky (in costume as Petrushka)

Original costume for Le Sacre du printemps

By Mark Pullinger, 29 March 2021

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Lawrence Dunn, 17th December

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Time magician: Jonathan Nott explores The Rite of Spring

Thomas May, 19th December

The English conductor talks about his bond with the storied Swiss orchestra he has helmed since 2017, and how they plan to recreate the danger of Stravinsky’s famous ballet.

Critics’ Choice: top ten conductors and orchestras

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Bachtrack polled 15 of the world's leading music critics and can reveal their 2023 list of the world's greatest orchestras and conductors.

Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.