Keeping Score: Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Keeping Score: Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 27, 2013

May 29, 1913 may not immediately (sorry) spring to mind as one of the more important historical dates in twentieth century history, and yet it was. For it was on that date that Le Sacre du Printemps, otherwise known as The Rite of Spring, premiered in Paris, causing such outrage in the opening night audience that choreographer Nijinsky was shouting out the rapidly changing meters to the dancers so that they could have some idea what measure Igor Stravinsky’s complex music, which by that point was being drowned out by catcalls, had gotten to. Stravinsky changed the course of modern music that night, to mention the world of dance, and much of what happened in classical music later during that epochal century can be traced directly to Le Sacre.

Michael Tilson Thomas has picked up the baton (sorry again) from Leonard Bernstein in providing fascinating combinations of history and music performance, a little like Bernstein’s old broadcasts on CBS, only a bit more extravagant in production quality. Tilson Thomas is an invariably ingratiating host, and he leads the audience on a nice documentary tour (unfortunately in SD) of both Stravinsky and Le Sacre. He also direct the San Francisco Symphony in a really appealing and at times very forceful accounting of some of Stravinsky’s orchestral masterpieces.

Keeping Score: Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Unfortunately, SFS Media has taken a bifurcated (or perhaps trifurcated) approach to this Blu-ray release. The documentary features a pretty ragged looking 480i presentation delivered via an MPEG-2 codec. The main concert outings are offered in 1080i via an AVC codec. And just for good measure the supplementary material is offered variously at either 720p (AVC) or 480i (MPEG-2). This makes for a pretty disjointed viewing experience and will no doubt disappoint many high definition aficionados who pick up this release. It goes without saying that the concert footage here is by far the nicest looking overall, with good clarity, accurate color and consistent contrast. The score above is an average of all of the pieces put togehter.

Keeping Score: Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The audio options here are a little less convoluted than the resolutions in video quality, but there are differences. The documentary features a Dolby TrueHD 2.0 mix which suffices quite well for the narration, on screen discussions, and snippets of music. The concert fare is delivered via Dolby TrueHD 5.1, which offers sterling recreation of the San Francisco Symphony's lustrous sound. Hall ambience is excellent and fidelity is similarly superb, with beautiful separation that allows Stravinsky's sometimes dense textures to really breathe. This is Stravinsky, so dynamic range is extremely wide.

Keeping Score: Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

How you define "supplement" will alter how you personally respond to my score above. There is the documentary about Stravinsky and The Rite of Spring, the concert elements which feature several iconic Stravinsky pieces, and then the "real" supplements, which include a bunch of short featurettes culled from other Keeping Score releases.

Keeping Score: Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While this another really laudable effort in the increasing Keeping Score discography, the fact that the documentary is in standard definition will no doubt disappoint ardent videophiles. If that qualm can be overcome, this offers the same potent combination of fascinating information and visceral performing that the rest of the series does. With caveats noted, this release comes Recommended.