The Colorado Springs Philharmonic presents Stravinsky's Rite of Spring

In 1913, Igor Stravinsky completely broke with tradition in the ballet Le sacre du printemps. Its premiere created a riot in the audience, with whistles, catcalls, fistfights, a true “war over art” in the words of one critic. The composer literally had to escape from the theater through a bathroom window. The impetus for the work was the romanticized vision of the rituals of pagan Russia, depicting a ceremony in which wise elders sit in a circle around a girl who dances herself to death as a sacrifice to the god of spring. The Colorado Springs Philharmonic performs this legendary work along with Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor.