At the end of his two-volume biography, Stephen Walsh writes that Igor Stravinsky's music is 'the one unquestioned staple of the modern repertoire, the body of work that, more than any other, stands as an icon of 20th-century musical thought and imagery'. There couldn't be a richer subject for a musical biographer and Walsh admits to having an obsession with his subject. The stamina of biographers often amazes me, and Walsh certainly doesn't lack it: he has tracked Stravinsky's movements in minute detail. He marshals his facts into a narrative that, while unpretentiously chronicle-like, is never flat, and he is a stylish writer and sharp analyst of music. His method is to counterpoint narrative and analysis, and he does this with unobtrusively musical flair. The book is lucidity itself ('lucidity' is the significant last word of Stravinsky's autobiography), and a model of good sense.

LRB 8 February 2007 | PDF Download