Get Your Stravinsky On

Igor Stravinsky, the father of classical modernism, lived in L.A. for thirty years. In fact, he was in the audience when conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler came to perform his Rite Of Spring right after WWII. Stravinsky had fled the Nazis and come to L.A. Furtwangler was on tour in an attempt to salvage his reputation, damaged by his cooperation with the Nazis during the war.

Stravinsky was an important part of the mid-century intelligentsia that settled here because of the war. In addition to Stravinsky, you had composer Arnold Schoenburg, writers Enrich Maria Remarque and Christopher Isherwood, and architects Richard Neutra and R.M. Schindler. At the center of this intellectual moment was Stravinsky, a man whose music had caused a riot when it was first played in Paris.

The L.A. Phil is performing the Rite Of Spring four times this weekend. Go see the work of the man who diverted the entire course of Western music.