I've been listening to a fair bit of Stravinsky recently, ever since my post on Monday regarding the Bad Plus and their Rite of Spring project, and in particular the three great early ballets (The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring - which were all, amazingly, composed between 1910 and 1913). The theory has been put forward several times that often a composer's most compelling music is written for the ballet. Obviously, dance itself (and the rhythms it requires) become the inspirational agent, and that certainly seems the case with this music, which is, to some listeners (including this one), the high point of Stravinsky's career. These scores, beautiful, strange and powerful throughout, are as important culturally as they are musically. They are among the defining accomplishments of modernism, as important as Picasso, and, inspired and inspiring, they retain all of their expressive power to this day. Here's a clip of the opening of Petrushka: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbWDG3LU4bc.