Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring: Marc-André Hamelin and Leif Ove Andsnes pianos

You're going to hear in the next few days that May 29 is the centenary of the premier of Stravinsky's legendary ballet, The Rite of Spring.  But that's only the first public performance, the one where the riot broke out.  The summer before that Stravinsky played it in a four-hand piano version with Claude Debussy.  I can imagine that performance counted quite heavily in Stravinsky's experience.  I'd much rather have been there than for the famous first performance.  Having heard the few recorded examples of Debussy playing  his own music and recordings of Stravinsky playing his, I can imagine it must have been quite a performance.  One account I heard was that the aftermath was rather subdued.  At least one critic wondered if Debussy saw the end of a long musical era, one he had done so much to end with his harmonic, formal and instrumental ingenuity.  I'd count Debussy as the first really modern composer.  Behind all of the delicate brush work and easy attractiveness, his work was revolutionary.

This is a recording of two of the greatest living piano players.  I can't bring back Debussy and Stravinsky but this is an amazing performance.