Late Night Concert: Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring

Missy Mazzoli The Night Ahead and No Real Fate (UK Premiere)

Stravinsky Five Easy Pieces

Stravinsky The Rite of Spring arr. piano for four hands

Featuring 

Viv McLean and Benjamin Powell piano

In our Late Night Concert we welcome back Viv McLean who joins forces with Benjamin Powell to demonstrate a selection of fascinating pieces for four hands on the piano. Viv and Benjamin are delighted to be giving the UK Premiere of Grammy-nominated Missy Mazzoli's The Night Ahead and No Real Fate which is inspired by the work of writer and artist Sam Pink and written for piano four-hands and electronics. Describing the piece, Missy says it is "shaped like a series of concentric circles; patterns unfurl outward from the middle register again and again until the player has struck every key, only then resting on the extreme edges of the instrument". Click here to watch the first performance of The Night Ahead and No Real Fate.

Stravinsky’s wrote his own dazzling piano duo arrangement of his ballet The Rite of Spring for four hands. Written in 1913 and premiered in Paris, the combination of dissonance in the music and jaunty choreography caused a sensation at the time, causing riots within the audience. The plot portrays a series of ancient ceremonies marking the arrival of spring, culminating in the selection of a young girl as a sacrificial victim and dances herself to death.