Rite of Spring

Anyone who has ever heard this music will never forget it. "Le Sacre"—many still pronounce the title with a mixture of awe, horror, and fascination. Stravinsky's ballet music is and remains the system-breaker of the standard classical repertoire. If one wanted to describe the music that, just over 100 years ago, triggered what was probably the greatest scandal in music history—it was in Paris in 1913—terms like "orgy," "Black Mass," "High Mass fo...