French Wines: Le Sacré du Printemps

Parisian society in 1913 got an unexpected taste of pagan ritual during the premiere of Stravinsky’s adventurous musical accompaniment to Les Ballets Russes. Historical accounts of The Rite of Spring credited highly original rhythmic structures and previously unheard tonal dissonance for what appeared to drive the audience into a form of collective chaos, as the performance allegedly ended with fistfights in the aisles. The fusing of primitive and modern rendered the piece an instant...