In addition to being a great composer, Igor Stravinsky was one of the most fascinating personalities of his time. His life spanned an amazing range of events & places
- pre-revolutionary Russia, Europe in the years between the wars, & the United States between 1941 & his death in 1971. Such masterworks as The Firebird, Petrushka, The Rite of Spring & many others fixed his reputation as a leading composer; his friendships
- & often enmities
- with most of his great intellectual contemporaries were famous. His personal life, which involved a double life between his official family & his mistress, was seldom placid. Touchy, unpredictable, witty & unfailingly brilliant, he is an ideal subject for a deeply informed & sophisticated biography. The first volume of this definitive biography covers Stravinsky's life & work from his birth in 1882 through to 1934, with special focus on his Russian roots & his struggles to make his way in Switzerland & France. It draws upon a great deal of new material, including unpublished archival sources, to illuminate the genius of both the music & Stravinsky the man.