Stravinsky was one of the most important and influential of all 20th century composers. Here we list 20 of our favourite recordings of his masterpieces that all make for highly rewarding listening
We explore Stravinsky's ground-breaking ballet The Rite of Spring, and why it has grown so important in the history of music, as well as its best recordings
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The Blue Danube
No other piece of music better illustrates the ‘flop to hit’ reversal than Johann Strauss II’s By the Beautiful Blue Danube. Here’s a waltz everybody knows, but the audience at its premiere did not entirely go with the flow. The work was intended to boost Viennese morale after Austria’s defeat at the hands of Prussia in the Seven Weeks’ War. And so it might have, had ‘humorous’ lyrics intended to make light of Austria’s problems not then been added. The first-night crowd hated them and the piece received just one encore making it, in Strauss’s terms, a disaster.