Our Stravinsky Concerts in Berlin 2025 & 2026

Igor Stravinsky is revolution, awakening, renewal, crossing boundaries, new expression. Enjoy a Stravinsky concert by our ROC ensembles in Berlin and experience for yourself the rush of life and the journey of discovery into new music that Stravinsky's compositions offer you.

Stravinsky concerts by the ROC in Berlin

Stravinsky's work mirrors the life of the composer in its movement, versatility, and drive for innovation. His life led him from his Russian homeland out into the world—mainly to Paris and later (due to the war) to the United States of America. This spirit of new beginnings is especially evident in his ballets "The Firebird," "Petrushka," and "The Rite of Spring," as well as in numerous orchestral works, piano pieces, operas, and vocal works.

Le sacre du printemps – a ballet that made history

With his revolutionary ballet "Le sacre du printemps", Igor Stravinsky brought about the collapse of an old aesthetic order and heralded the modern age. From the very first, now-legendary, high-pitched bassoon tones, it’s clear that something radically new is about to unfold – and Stravinsky doesn’t disappoint. "Le sacre du printemps" is musical brutality and rhythmic innovation, brimming with archaic energy.

The premiere provoked loud protests, heckling, chaos – even fistfights in the audience. "Le sacre du printemps" is less a piece of music than a cultural event. Stravinsky called the vision that drove him to compose the Sacre "a great pagan ritual." Anyone expecting pastoral idylls, gentle blooming or babbling brooks was quickly reminded of the first part of the title – the central element of "Sacre du Printemps" is a sacrificial dance. A young girl dances herself to death, in a sense in service of the community, to force the return of spring. This is no mild round dance in a scenic meadow – at its core are tension, struggle, violence, and raw physicality.

The ROC orchestras devote themselves to this extraordinary, still startlingly alien-sounding, revolutionary music in their "Le sacre du printemps" concerts – reviving the shock that shook the cultural world of Paris in 1913.

Alongside this epoch-making work, Stravinsky left behind an astonishingly vast and stylistically diverse oeuvre that continues to resonate with a powerful force today.

Our ROC ensembles perform Stravinsky concerts in the magnificent venues of Berlin for you, allowing you to experience this pioneering spirit, this joy in experimentation, and the new!