Bass clarinet Nos. 4, 7, 8, and 11, and Leoš Janáček's Sinfonietta. All of these works exploit the instrument's dark, powerful lower range. Prokofiev wrote parts for the instrument in his Symphonies Nos. 2–7 and in his ballet "Romeo and Juliet". Sergei Rachmaninoff used the instrument to great effect in his Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3 and in his symphonic poem, "Isle of The Dead". Igor Stravinsky also wrote complex parts for the instrument throughout his career, most prominently in his ballets "The Firebird" (1910), "Petrushka" (1911) and "The Rite of Spring" (1913). The bass clarinet has a solo at the opening
The Rite of Spring Pagan Russia in Two Parts"; the scenario depicts various primitive rituals celebrating the advent of spring, after which a young girl is chosen as a sacrificial victim and dances herself to death. After a mixed critical reception for its original run and a short London tour, the ballet was not performed again until the 1920s, when a version choreographed by Léonide Massine replaced Nijinsky's original. Massine's was the forerunner of many innovative productions directed by the world's leading ballet-masters, gaining the work worldwide acceptance. In the 1980s, Nijinsky's original choreography, long believed lost, was reconstructed by the Joffrey Ballet in