Trivia / Igor Stravinsky

• All-Star Cast: For Stravinsky's 1962 recording of Les Noces in English translation, the four pianos were played by four of the most distinguished American composers of the period: Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, Roger Sessions and Samuel Barber.
• Died During Production: Stravinsky died in 1971 before he could compose a station ident for BBC2.
• Fandom Rivalry: For a while in the mid-20th century, if you liked contemporary music, you were either a Stravinsky fan or a Schoenberg fan. Very few people were both. In 1947 the German philosopher and music critic T.W. Adorno wrote a book, Philosophy of New Music, that fomented this trope by pitting Stravinsky's and Schoenberg's respective musics against each other. (He was very much in favour of Schoenberg, although he softened his stance later on.)
• Follow the Leader:
  • There was a time, at any rate, when if you were a 20th century composer, you couldn't escape his influence.
  • Stravinsky himself did this late in his career; with traditional tonality falling out of favor with younger musicians, Stravinsky reinvented himself by turning his back on tonality and using Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone system.
• Money, Dear Boy: Stravinsky was not considered a great conductor, and he didn't particularly enjoy conducting, but after he moved to America he began making regular appearances as a conductor because the money for the concerts far outweighed anything he made as a composer.
• What Could Have Been: David Attenborough tells a story in his autobiography about his attempt to create a highbrow station ident for BBC2. As he was already on good terms with both Pablo Picasso and Stravinsky, he figured it would be a real coup to have Picasso do the visuals and Stravinsky the music. Picasso was actually up for it, provided Stravinsky agreed too, but Stravinsky's death put the kibosh on it.

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