Stravinsky's Rite of Spring

“Throughout the performance, it really was not possible to hear the music. We were constantly disturbed by a fellow waving his cane in the adjacent loge, and he ended up fighting with an enthusiast in the loge next to him. His cane landed on the top hat that the other man had put on beforehand defiantly.”

“From the first note of the extremely high bassoon solos, snickering could be heard—is that still music, or a spring storm, or hellish noise? (…) Drumming all over the place, at the front on stage are naked dancers making ecstatic movements (…) Once the Parisians realise that this is meant seriously, they start shouting. On the other hand, the adherents of modernism are applauding from the cheap seats, the music rages on, the dancers get lost, being unable to hear the music over all the fuss, and from somewhere Maurice Ravel keeps shouting ‘Genius!’ over and over.”

Author Gertrude Stein and playboy Harry Kessler about the premiere of The Rite of Spring