One Note Through the Silence — The Rite of Spring Begins
Notes Beyond the Stage Performance Essay Performance Essay · 2026 Symphony Festival One Note Through the Silence — The Rite of Spring Begins Principal Bassoonist, Incheon Philharmonic Orchestra On performing Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring Junwon Lee · Principal Bassoon · Incheon Art Center · Seoul Arts Center · 2026 Korea Symphony Festival Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring demands absolute vigilance from the first bar to the last. Yet among all its moments of tension, none is more exposed, more precarious, than the very beginning. In the stillness of a darkened hall, while an entire orchestra holds its breath — the first sound that must emerge is a bassoon solo. The Lowest Voice, Asked to Reach the Highest The bassoon is the foundational bass voice of the woodwind family. Its deep, resonant timbre is both its identity and, for those of us who play it, the sound we have lived with our entire musical lives. And yet Stravinsky, in entrusting the bassoon with the wor...