Close Encounters With Music: “Rite of Spring” – Rachmaninoff / Stravinsky

Two monumental works, two Russian ex-pats of the same aristocratic background—and two divergent extremes. One, a master of nostalgia and a formidable pianist, follows in the footsteps of Chopin. The other, a trailblazer, scandalizer and collaborator of Picasso delights in breaking old molds—though harking back to traditional Russian folk material—and ushers in a new age in music, conceptually aligned with Cubism. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring shock...