Stravinsky "Sacre": One of the very greatest 20th century works. Amazing piece of music! Huge orchestra. Yes, the music dictates that; that is how the composer scored it. As you say, eight horns; and, two of them double on Wagner tubas. Two of the trumpets double on bass (!) trumpet. This is a brilliant piece of orchestration genius and definitely not a case of "let's throw everything in there but the kitchen sink" resulting in many fantastic colors and textures. As an aside: this being a work written for a ballet and ballet orchestras having to be in a pit, there is a version of this work (done by Stravinsky himself) for reduced orchestra in order for the musicians to fit into the typically smaller space in a pit.
Good question re the printing of the music. That is one of the jobs of a good editor and printer (publisher), to account for precisely what you describe. It is the bane of every player's existence when a publisher does NOT do that and the music is printed in such a way that you have to turn the page in the middle of a passage. They usually try and have the music at the end of a page end with a rest. What you saw from the violinists is standard protocol; the stand partner turns while the other player keeps playing.
BTW, Van Sweden will be the NY Phil's next music director beginning 2017.
Good question re the printing of the music. That is one of the jobs of a good editor and printer (publisher), to account for precisely what you describe. It is the bane of every player's existence when a publisher does NOT do that and the music is printed in such a way that you have to turn the page in the middle of a passage. They usually try and have the music at the end of a page end with a rest. What you saw from the violinists is standard protocol; the stand partner turns while the other player keeps playing.
BTW, Van Sweden will be the NY Phil's next music director beginning 2017.