Two different reviews of Stravinsky

In combing through the Library of Congress archives, I found two separate reviews of the same concert series from 1930 that featured Schoenberg’s Die Gluckliche Hand and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Deciding they would be interesting to compare, I specifically focused on the reception of The Rite of Spring, as we just discussed its premiere in class this past week. Here is a clip from the first review I discovered:

from “A Schoenberg-Stravinsky program,” Musical Leader, April 17 1930

This review is straightforward and positive, not what I expected when I came across it. The new staging seems significant in the positive reception of the piece, as the review states that “many of the effects were almost breath-taking.” I did chuckle at the inclusion of the word “almost” in this sentence. Why were the effects not considered fully breath-taking?

Here is a photo of some of the costume design:

The second review I discovered was much longer and not entirely positive:

from “Stage Schonberg Opera and Stravinsky Ballet,” Musical America, April 25 1930

Again, the author mentions that the staging helped in audience understanding of the piece. Yet the author goes on to describe the music as having “bludgeoning sonorities” and “uncouth rhythms.”

I was surprised that, although the reviews were both very different from one another, they both concurred on the fact that the staging of the piece made the music more accessible. I would have thought that, with the choice in costumes and the unexpected choreography, the staging would only enhance the perceived strangeness of The Rite.

Did the choreography of this performance differ greatly from the original choreography? This question led me to look into Martha Graham, and I discovered from marthagraham.org that this performance was the first American production of the entire work. The Philadelphia Orchestra had performed the American premiere of the music only in 1922, but this performance in 1930 was the first fully staged American production.

Here is a photo of Martha Graham from this performance:

Martha Graham, Solo Dancer in “Le Sacre du Printemps”

Reading how important the dance was in audience reception of the piece makes me wonder if The Rite can and should stand alone at all or if it absolutely requires the choreography for performance. After all, we would never perform the entire Nutcracker score without dancers, although we frequently hear snippets or certain numbers played around the holidays. Can The Rite of Spring exist both as a stand-alone piece of music and as the score to a ballet? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!