Igor Stravinsky was a celebrated composer in an age increasingly obsessed with celebrity. He was a true modern; a man of his time: in Paris he dined with James Joyce, Pablo Picasso and Marcel Proust; and by the end of his life was being fted by both the White House and the Kremlin as a prime piece of Cold War capital. But his colourful life would mean little to us were it not for the brilliant and original music he produced, music that reflected and shaped his own times, and which continues to sing today.
