IamExpat is giving 10 pairs of tickets to the European Union Youth Orchestra playing The Rite of Spring at Concertgebouw in Amsterdam! Enter to win, and receive a pair of tickets to this incredible concert.

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• Where: The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
• When: August 26
• Number of ticket pairs available: 10 ticket pairs

Stravinsky’s masterpiece, The Rite of Spring

The premiere of Igor Stravinksy’s The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps) is perhaps the most notorious scandal in the history of music. The ballet and orchestral work was first performed by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes at the Theatre du Champs-Élysées in Paris on May 29, 1913, and famously caused a riot. Many people in the audience were so outraged by Stravinsky’s avant-garde score - and Nijinsky’s choreography - that they thought it seemed like the work of a madman. 

A year later, when the score was performed in Paris as a concert piece for the first time, Stravinsky was carried on the shoulders of his fans in triumph and there were huge ovations. Although designed as a work for the stage, commentators broadly agree that The Rite of Spring has had a greater impact in the concert hall.

The work is now widely regarded as one of the most influential musical works of the 20th century, a seminal work of modernism that boldly rejected the ordered harmonies and comfort of traditional composition. Leonard Bernstein described The Rite of Spring as, “The most important piece of music of the 20th century,” and one of the most influential musical works of that era.

Concert programme 

Here's a summary of the concert programme:

• Kendall - Nexus
• Rachmaninoff - Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, op. 43
• Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring