22. To which great Russian composer is this quote attributed?
"Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end."
Who is he?
From Quiz Don't Quote Me, Yet Again
Answer:
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Strvinsky was born in St Petersburg, Russia, on 17 June 1882. He started to play the piano as a young boy and not long after he was in his teens he had mastered many pieces. He enrolled in university to study law, but was not a good student as he spent more time studying music than law. After his father's death, Stravinsky began taking lessons from Rimsky-Korskov until Rimsky-Korsakov's death in 1908.
In 1908 Stravinsky was commissioned to compose a ballet score for "The Firebird", which had its opening performance in Paris in June 1910, and he became an "overnight sensation". His family joined him in Paris and they moved to Switzerland and spent their time between Switzerland and Russia. By 1913 he had composed the music for two further ballets, "Petrushka" and "The Right of Spring", and he then completed his first opera "Le Rossignol" (The Nightingale). When it seemed inevitable that there would be a war, Stravinsky returned to Russia to collect personal effects and music manuscripts, returning to Switzerland just in time, as the borders were being closed. He did not return to Russia until 1962. In September 1939, Stravinsky arrived the USA and travelled to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he had engagements at Harvard. He eventually settled in Hollywood, becoming a US citizen in 1946. He continued with his compositions until his death in 1971 due to heart failure. He was 88 years of age.
In 1987 he was posthumously given the Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement, and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.