“Le Sacre du Printemps” is often referred to as the origin of what we call contemporary music. Composed by Igor Stravinsky in 1911–13, the ballet score evolved from an opening night scandal to a cornerstone of modern orchestral music.

The piece induced a paradigm shift by reassessing several parameters of music. The preeminence of rhythm, including polyrhythms and unpredictable off-beat outbursts, coincides with a harmonic and melodic reduction. An extreme example is “Danses des adolescentes”, with one pulsating chord that serves as material for rhythmical elaboration which is evoked by means of accents, rather than harmonic advancement, since a single chord cannot imply any functional relationship. Dissonances, polytonalities, percussive strings, augmented wind and percussion instruments, layered ostinati, as well as raw, tribal elements add to an acoustic adventure that has changed music forever.

Now, for the first time, this landmark score has been realized exclusively using sample-based virtual instruments, and by a single person. What used to require a preeminent conductor, leading around a hundred musicians, who had better be virtuosos in order to perform the piece the way it was intended by the composer, can now be delivered by a single musician – though admittedly, a very gifted one! Jay Bacal, orchestrator extraordinaire and contributor of many demo masterpieces for the Vienna Symphonic Library, has created a stunning rendering using only the Vienna Instruments.

Stravinsky’s demands of a large orchestra and his unusual instrumentation (e.g., third clarinet doubling the bass clarinet, two bass tubas, etc.) call for an arsenal of instruments that no other virtual orchestra is able to deliver. Herb Tucmandl, Vienna Symphonic Library’s founder and managing director comments, “I’m humbly thrilled that a masterpiece that has crossed my musical path on so many occasions was finally realized using Vienna Instruments exclusively. A big ‘Thanks’ and hats off to Jay Bacal for pulling this off, your creation is awe-inspiring and breathtaking!”

Jay Bacal on working on the Rite.

Full version

The Rite of Spring is divided into two parts, each made up of several scenes. Here you can listen continuously to all scenes of each part. You can download the .MP3 files of each part, as well as the tutorials that include the MIDI file of each part together with Jay's Vienna Ensemble settings.

Single scenes

Here you can listen to the same scenes individually. You can choose between downloading .MP3 files and .WAV files in 24-bit quality. Please note that 24-bit audio hardware and appropriate player software (e.g., Windows Media Player does NOT work) is necessary to play back the .WAV files properly.