Probably the most celebrated score of the twentieth century, The Rite of Spring provoked a full-scale riot at its first performance in 1913. Hardly a single serious composer in the world escaped its influence. Savage and haunting, unearthly and violent, harsh and sensual, it paints a panorama of fantastic instrumental colour, animated by a rhythmic drive and power of irresistible excitement and often astounding complexity. A whole new world of sound in its day, it retains its modernity and fascination, its thrills and its terrors, as much today as it ever did. Here we put it under the aural microscope and explore just what it is that makes it tick, and why it continues to hook listener after listener almost a century later. The work is also played in its entirety.

A series exploring, in words and music, the major classical works of the concert hall. In an accessible and lively manner, Jeremy Siepmann looks at the history and the form of the great masterpieces of Western music.