Stravinsky Duo

“The Rite Of Spring Part 1”

Pianist Will Butterworth has featured regularly on these pages in a series of live reviews of performances with a variety of line ups in the Welsh border towns of Presteigne, Abergavenny and Hay-On-Wye.

The most unusual of these was as one half of the Stravinsky Duo, a collaboration with drummer Dylan Howe which saw the pair exploring the music of Igor Stravinsky in a 2009 concert at Presteigne Assembly Rooms. On that occasion one half of the performance was given over to their interpretation of Stravinsky’s “The Rite Of Spring”, the other to his “Firebird Suite”. It was a challenging evening for both performers and audience alike but one that everybody rose to collectively in a fascinating, absorbing and ultimately highly enjoyable concert.

2010 finally saw Butterworth and Howe committing some of this music to disc beginning with the more experimental of the two works, “The Rite Of Spring”. Inspired by pagan rituals the piece provoked riots when the orchestral version was debuted in Paris in 1916 and nearly a century later the piece is still regarded as one of the most testing works in the classical canon.

But Stravinsky’s influence is not merely confined to the classical sphere. His experiments with unusual time signatures and improvisational elements have also proved inspirational to jazz musicians, particularly saxophonist Charlie Parker and his bebop contemporaries who helped to revolutionise jazz in the 1940’s and 50’s. Indeed Butterworth seems to regard him as something of a godfather of contemporary jazz.

Howe came to Stravinsky’s music via his father Steve Howe, guitarist with the progressive rock group Yes. Howe Senior’s band used Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite” as their introductory music and this resonated with the young Dylan, making him determined to one day explore Stravinsky’s music for himself. The Stravinsky duo is a far cry from Howe’s hard bop inspired quintet but his playing throughout “The Rite Of Spring” is exemplary, the perfect foil to Butterworth’s inspired pianistics.

The Stravinsky duo take the composer’s music as a blueprint, sometimes wandering off the page in a spirit of jazz improvisation, at others sticking loosely to the script. Although the piece is in fact a single performance the CD delineates the music into ten separate tracks to ease the navigation for the listener.

One thing that was apparent in live performance was Butterworth’s extraordinary technique, his left hand as busy as his right as he tackled Stravinsky’s fearsomely difficult rhythms and time signatures. Indeed his hands seemed totally independent of each other leaving most listeners scratching their heads and wondering “just how does he do that?”

All these qualities are brought to bear on the album but the recording also brings out the more lyrical aspects of the work, it isn’t just about jaggedness and dissonance and Stravinsky comes up with some strong themes and motifs. Howe’s drumming shadows Butterworth’s every move with grace and acumen, he offers both colouration and punctuation adding rhythms, pulses, accents and shadings. In this context the absence of a bassist is noticed not at all.

The two part “Introduction” moves from gentle lyricism to glowering ominousness and back again. “The Augurs Of Spring” ushers in a strong jazz groove which is never entirely abandoned no matter how far out the duo push things. At times Howe’s drums take over the lead before Butterworth restates Stravinsky’s memorable theme.

“Mock Abduction” also boasts a catchy hook and the duo give it a Monkish twist.  Maybe old Thelonious was influenced by Igor too.

“Spring Round Dances” slowly builds in intensity over Howe’s snare tattoos with Butterworth’s left hand becoming increasingly dominant. There’s then a brief, lighting fast coda featuring one of Stravinsky’s most striking motifs.

“Games Of The Rival Tribes” finds the duo sparring with each other in a good natured reflection of the title. This segues into “Procession Of The Wise Elders”, a piece as intense as anything that has gone before, the second half of which is taken up with a lengthy Howe drum solo. The album ends with the joyous, occasionally dissonant “Dance Of The Earth”.

Despite its classical origins this is very much a jazz album with the emphasis on the dialogue between Butterworth and Howe. The pair designate the music “arrangements and improvisations” which is a fair summation. The spirit of Stravinsky is very much present but filtered through a contemporary, jazz orientated prism.

Butterworth and Howe’s “Rite Of Spring” is a challenging but rewarding listen and there is some wonderful playing from both musicians, particularly the frequently astonishing Butterworth. Incredibly he is largely self taught.

To really appreciate the enormity of the duo’s achievement it’s best to have seen them live. The concert experience certainly heightens one’s enjoyment of the album but it’s still a rewarding listen in its own right. As previously mentioned a review of the duo’s concert at Presteigne can be found elsewhere on this site.

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