Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, CBSO, Symphony Hall, Birmingham | Wednesday 3rd June 2026 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by David Gray & Paul Gray
Photo credit: Hannah Blake Fathers
Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring
CBSO, Symphony Hall, Birmingham |Wednesday 3rd June 2026
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by David Gray & Paul Gray
Frescobaldi (arr. Stokowski) – Gagliarda Seconda
Purcell (arr. Stokowski) – Dido’s Lament
Debussy (arr. Stokowski) – The Sunken Cathedral
Mussorgsky (arr. Stokowski) – Boris Godunov, Symphonic Synthesis, Coronation Scene
Bach (arr. Stokowski) – Toccata and Fugue
Stravinsky – The Rite of Spring
“These arrangements hark back to the time before authenticity in performance practice had taken hold.”
This was a concert oddly unified by the figure of Leopold Stokowski. A superstar conductor of the early and mid-20th Century. He was, on the one hand, an advocate of bringing classical music to the masses, and on the other, a champion of new and challenging works.
So, in the first half the CBSO delivered a selection of approachable pieces by other composers, arranged by Stokowski, for so-called ‘pops concerts’; concerts designed to bring new audiences to hear classical music.
In the second half, the CBSO gave us The Rite of Spring. Stokowski conducted the US premiere of this in 1922. We can only imagine how the audience at that concert reacted to a piece of music that didn’t just break new ground but smashed it to smithereens!
The concert began with arrangements of baroque pieces: a galliard by Frescobaldi and the timeless lament from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. These arrangements hark back to the time before authenticity in performance practice had taken hold. A time when the approach to baroque music was lush and almost reverential. They do work, by dint perhaps of Stokowski’s clear respect and admiration of his source material. They were beautifully played with restraint and care.
Stokowski’s arrangement of Debussy’s The Sunken Cathedral could have been by Claude Debussy himself. While extracts from Boris Godunov probably needed little additional input. Both works showcased the (enormous) orchestra, who played with colour and flair, although the closing bars of the Debussy might have been much quieter.
The less said the better about Stokowski’s arrangement of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue. This simply isn’t Bach. All of the contrapuntal detail is swamped by the vastness of the texture and crushed by an overwhelmingly bass-heavy sound world. The hundred and ten or so players on the platform gave it their significant all, but this is the aural equivalent of watching a battle tank successfully negotiate a slalom run: impressive, but not pretty. No criticism of the performance, which was tremendous; the arrangement is at fault.
And so to Stravinsky. Newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor, Ilan Volkov’s reading leant into the visceral barbarity of the score, but never at the cost of detail or nuance. While the pile-driver passages were given full vent, it was in the more subdued sections that Volkov’s mastery of the score - and his skill as conductor-cum-storyteller - were most apparent.
Volkov never let the energy or intensity falter. He maintained and built dramatic tension to create an almost unbearable and dreadful sense of foreboding and threat. So that, when the massive explosions of colour arrived, they were at once cathartic and terrifying.
It is remarkable that Volkov and the orchestra managed to maintain such a strong narrative thread through a work whose story is, in effect, very simple: people dance and a virgin dies.
Lead bassoon, Nikolaj Henriques played the opening solo with an elegance and lyricism that belied the difficulty of the passage. Throughout, the whole orchestra maintained unfailing intensity and a complete understanding of Volkov’s vision. We look forward to this conductor’s tenure, and to many more concerts as engaging and compelling as this.
Conductor – Ilan Volkov