2 CDs with over 50 tracks of Stravinsky's music

Detailed essay by David Nice

Photographs to illustrate the text


Includes music from The Firebird, The Rite of Spring, The Soldier's Tale, Pulcinella, Les Noces, Piano Sonata, Oedipus Rex, Symphony of Psalms, Violin Concerto, Dumbarton Oaks, The Rake's Progress, Requiem Canticles and more.

From the Russian fairy-tale enchantment of The Firebird to the austere ritual at the end of his Requiem Canticles composed over half a century later, Stravinsky's extraordinary creativity embraces a range of styles and tributes to composers of the past. He started under the guidance of Rimsky-Korsakov in pre-revolutionary St Petersburg and ended his life in America having made a very special kind of peace with the rigorous (serial) techniques of Schoenberg and Webern. Yet his homages are always heartfelt, and he always remains himself: truly the most comprehensive and wide-ranging musical genius of the twentieth century.