Stravinsky - Perséphone (NYC Ballet, Vera Craft cond, 1982)

A gentle, more kind “Rite of Spring“ is “Perséphone”. Stravinsky said for “Perséphone” he had wanted “only syllables, beautiful, strong syllables—and beyond that, a plot.” - although André Gide preferred words to ending: If Spring is to be reborn The seed must die Beneath the ground, to reappear As a golden harvest in years to come. Stravinsky had this to say (from the book “Perspectives of New Music“, 1962): Perséphone does start tentatively, the B‑flat music in 3/8 meter near the end is long, and the melodramas tend to beget large stretches of ostinato. I am no longer able to evaluate such things, or ever again be as I was when I wrote Perséphone. But I still love the music, especially the flutes in Perséphone’s final speech (this needs stage movement!), and the final chorus (when it is played and sung in tempo, and very quietly without any general crescendo). I love the chord before the C