Stravinsky: The Second Exile: France and America, 1934–1971

Stravinsky: The Second Exile: France and America, 1934–1971 by Walsh, Stephen. Paperback edition. ISBN: 9780520256156.

Stephen Walshs magisterial, engagingly written two-volume Stravinsky is the most detailed and extensive work available on the life of the man widely regarded as the greatest composer of the twentieth century. This second volume takes up the composers story in 1934, in a Europe growing ever more chaotic in the lead-up to World War II. Walsh follows Stravinskys emigration to the United States, where he courted Hollywood, associated with writers and artists including Aldous Huxley, W.H. Auden, and George Balanchine, began a career as a conductor and recording artist, and composed a string of masterpieces that changed the course of twentieth-century music. Stravinsky: The Second Exile takes full account of Russian-language sources, including much correspondence, made available since the composers death and since the fall of the Soviet Union, and is the first work to thoroughly assess the authenticity of many of the writings published under Stravinskys name.