On Monday (9/21) at New York classical radio station WQXR, Brian Wise writes that in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, “Stravinsky’s 1913 ballet score The Rite of Spring was performed Saturday night at the Masonic Temple, while a crowd of about 300 audience members swayed and thrashed about, clapped along, formed a conga line, and even crowd-surfed in a rambunctious pageant seemingly reminiscent of a late-night rave, complete with an open bar and fluttering glow-sticks.… Conductor James Blachly’s pre-concert request that listeners not stomp rhythmically as it would throw off the 85 musicians of the Experiential Orchestra, a freelance ensemble … didn’t stick. Organized with Groupmuse, a national organization that stages chamber performances in private homes, the ‘Rite’ dance party … was promoted in a social media campaign as ‘The Rite of freaking Spring.’ … Proceeds … went towards Musicambia, a classical music nonprofit that works in prisons…. The violent ‘Glorification of the Chosen One’ briefly spawned a hardcore-style mosh pit in the increasingly steamy hall…. Corey Schutzer, a double bassist in the orchestra, said the dance-party element ‘got me more into the primal elements of the music…. I’ve never heard applause like that at an orchestral concert. It felt like everybody was really in this together.’ ”
Posted September 22, 2015
