Is ballet music programme music when performed without the ballet? If it is, then is it "about" the dance action onstage, or is it, instead, more "about" the story and images that inspired the ballet's  scenario in the first place? If so, then Stravinsky (famous for the dictum that music expresses only itself) may, paradoxically, have written one of the greatest tone poems of the twentieth century. These were some of the thoughts going through my mind as I listened to duo pianists Xenia Pestova and Pascal Meyer playing "The Rite of Spring". Their two-piano version provided more resonance and weight...  Read More »