Over the weekend, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra took the bold move to perform Stravinsky’s three early ballet scores in a single programme, and what an extraordinary event it was! The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913) were all created for the legendary impresario Serge Diaghilev and premiered in Paris by his Ballets Russes company.

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chief Conductor Jaime Martín. Photo supplied

It’s hard to believe that those scores by Igor Stravinsky are now over a century old. Not so very long ago they were considered unfathomable, unlistenable and unplayable.

The MSO’s new Chief Conductor Jaime Martín claims a special affinity with this music. As a flute player playing the Stravinsky ballets with various London orchestras, he had “such a good time”, he recently told Limelight, that he thought it would be “nice” to put this project together with the MSO.  It would be “hard work for the orchestra,” he admitted, but everyone was very excited about it.

That excitement was evidenced in the Hamer Hall this weekend in abundance.

For many of us, hearing for perhaps the first time the...