The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, plays Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring' on period instruments.
The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment are bringing Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring to Royal Festival Hall on Thursday 18 February 2027, with Vladimir Jurowski conducting. The OAE are a period-instrument ensemble, so they'll be playing the piece on the kind of instruments that would have been around when it was first written, rather than the modern versions you'll hear in most concert halls. That's a fair bit of a shift in sound for a work that's usually played by a massive modern orchestra.
The programme frames the whole thing as 'Paris, 1913. The premiere of The Rite of Spring', a nod to the night the piece first went out and caused a genuine riot in the theatre. The notes describe rhythmic detonations tearing through the orchestra and pushing the instruments to their limits with raw energy — and that raw energy is exactly what the OAE are known for. It's a piece that still has the power to shock more than a century after its premiere, and hearing it on period instruments brings it closer to how it would have sounded back then.
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If you're more of a dance person, the programme also mentions Pina Bausch, whose choreography is one of the most powerful versions of the work. It's not part of this particular performance, but it's a good place to look if you want to see how the music translates to the stage. The concert itself is just the music, conducted by Jurowski, with the OAE on period instruments. It starts at 7pm at Royal Festival Hall, so you've got the evening to settle in before the first chord hits.
