Rite of Spring - CD

This transcription of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring marks the completion of a rewarding multi-year project to rethink this 1913 modernist work for large orchestra and transform it into a virtuoso duo for viola and piano while preserving it's original rhythmic and melodic integrity and formal structure. Stephen Wyrczynski, viola, and Aram Arakelyan, piano, gave the world premiere in the fall of 2024 and recorded the work for Azica Records in the summer of 2025 with producer Alan Bise. A printed edition is published by Songburd Music.This definitive edition of The Rite of Spring for viola and piano was a collaboration between Stephen Wyrczynski and Aram Arakelyan, both in residence at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. We spent many months studying the orchestral score composed by Stravinsky, as well as reviewing and considering the composer's own reduction for piano four hands. This transcription has been undertaken with scholarly rigor and careful attention to the structure, inventiveness, and completeness of the original score.