Stravinsky Rocks

The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Stravinsky Festival has come and gone. Sold-out houses, and in the mix, lots of analyses of who this composer was. As Times music critic Mark Swed reports (“Philharmonic Series Ends, but Moment Still Belongs to Stravinsky,” March 14), Stravinsky can be seen in numerous lights: the great sacred conscience of the century, the avaricious monster, the voice of exile. More, perhaps.

Here’s a different perspective. For those who don’t know his music, and don’t know that he lived in L.A. longer than in any other location, invest $16 in your future and buy a recording of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.” Listen to it once, and by all means do it before you bother to read CD notes that might obfuscate your listening experience. My guess? You’ll realize Stravinsky’s time has arrived--whenever first you hear his music.

I discovered Stravinsky when I was 15 and on my way to buy “Meet the Beatles.” What I heard, amazingly, was Stravinsky’s “Rite” blaring at my local Wherehouse. The Beatles rock, for sure, but the “Rite” rocks and rolls, and blueses, and jazzes, and raps, and westerns and easterns, and souls--all simultaneously.

ARTHUR G. SVENSON

Redlands

*

The music making was thrilling. The orchestra is honed to play this music. And the LACMA seminar of musicians reminiscing about their dealings with Stravinsky while he lived in Los Angeles was totally absorbing, educational and thrilling. It could have lasted all night, and it still wouldn’t have been enough.

Toward the end of the festival, it was as if I could sense the old man’s spirit traipsing through the city he once called home.

MATTHEW HETZ

Los Angeles