9. Igor StravinskyLe Sacre du printemps
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite Of Spring) is something: maybe one of the very few most important pieces of music in my life. I grew up listening to the radio, classical music, and then when I was about 14, I heard Le Sacre du printemps and I didn’t understand it at all. It was something totally strange and frightening, totally otherworldly. At that time, I had sold my electrical train set and had bought a record player and the money I had left was just enough for two records. I bought Schubert’s 8th, the ‘Unfinished Symphony’, and I bought the Stravinsky, which I didn’t understand, which frightened me. It was my first record in a way, and there is no music that I have ever listened to so many times. I still have the record – it crackles like hell because it has been played thousands of times.
SK: Supposedly there was a near riot when it was first performed.
When it was performed for the first time, the reaction of the people was the same as me being 14. But I wanted to know what it was about and then it became one of my absolute favourite pieces and still is.
