Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a concert ending with one of Igor Stravinsky’s most celebrated pieces. The Rite of Spring surely deserves that overused epithet of 'iconic' and over a century after its infamous Paris premiere, it still thrills audiences with the visceral power of its explosive rhythms and spectacular orchestral sonorities.

To begin, it’s back to the future with the elemental sound world of wind and percussion in Ștefan Niculescu’s 1975 Ison II.

In between, work by one of the most refreshing and boldest composers working in Britain today, and a Grand Old Man of New Music. Recorder virtuoso Erik Bosgraaf is the soloist Anna Meredith’s Origami Songs, a collection of miniatures which, like Japanese paper-folding, evokes the real world with sophisticated simplicity. Arvo Pärt is now famous for his particular brand of minimalism. But 60 years ago in music like his Perpetuum mobile, the 28-year-old composer was finding his voice via the serialist camp of the avant-garde.

Recorded last month at the Barbican Hall, London, and introduced by Martin Handley.

Ștefan Niculescu: Ison II
Anna Meredith: Origami Songs
Arvo Pärt: Perpetuum mobile
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

Erik Bosgraaf (recorder)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor)