The most explosive piece of music of the 20th century was written in a tiny eight-by-eight-foot room in Clarens, Switzerland, on a heavily muted upright piano. This episode follows Igor Stravinsky from a musical household in St. Petersburg and a law degree begun in 1901 through his mentorship under Rimsky-Korsakov, his discovery by impresario Sergei Diaghilev after the 1909 performance of Fireworks, and the early Ballets Russes hits The Firebird and Petrushka. We then trace the pagan vision of a girl dancing herself to death that became The Rite of Spring, developed with folk-ritual expert Nicholas Roerich.

The conversation digs into the mechanics of polytonality and the choking high bassoon solo, the folk-song sources Stravinsky spent years denying, and the toxic rehearsals where conductor Pierre Monteux walked out and the orchestra laughe ...