Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
The Rite of Spring (Le sacre du printemps)
The Firebird (L'oiseau de feu) (Suite No. 2, 1919)

Igor Stravinsky was the son of a distinguished bass soloist at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, creator of important rôles in new operas by Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. He was born, the third of four sons, at Oranienbaum on the Gulf of Finland in the summer of 1882. In childhood his ability in music did not seem exceptional, but he was able to study music privately with Rimsky-Korsakov, who became a particularly important influence after the death of the composer's imperious father in 1902. He completed a degree in law in 1905, married in the following year and increasingly devoted himself to music. His first significant success came when the impresario Dyagilev, a distant relative on his mother's side of the family, commissioned from him the ballet The Firebird, first performed in Paris in 1910. This was fo