The Rite of Spring of the evening Stravinsky had asserted that "Monteux, almost alone among conductors, never cheapened "Rite" or looked for his own glory in it, and he continued to play it all his life with the greatest fidelity". Commentators have often described "The Rite"s music in vivid terms; Paul Rosenfeld, in 1920, wrote of it "pound[ing] with the rhythm of engines, whirls and spirals like screws and fly-wheels, grinds and shrieks like laboring metal". In a more recent analysis, "The New York Times" critic Donal Henahan refers to "great crunching, snarling chords from the brass and thundering thumps from the timpani". The
The Rite of Spring a series of flute trills that usher in the "Spring Rounds", in which a slow and laborious theme gradually rises to a dissonant fortissimo, a "ghastly caricature" of the episode's main tune. Brass and percussion predominate as the "Ritual of the Rival Tribes" begins. A tune emerges on tenor and bass tubas, leading after much repetition to the entry of the Sage's procession. The music then comes to a virtual halt, "bleached free of colour" (Hill), as the Sage blesses the earth. The "Dance of the Earth" then begins, bringing Part I to a close in a series of phrases