5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Stravinsky Dive into the composer who changed music history and gave Mikhail Baryshnikov “my first heady sniff of the West.” Credit...Angie Wang Aug. 4, 2021Updated 7:16 a.m. ET Now we want to convince those curious friends to love Igor Stravinsky, possibly the widest-ranging and most influential composer of the 20th century, and an inspiration for some of George Balanchine’s ballet masterpieces. We hope you find lots here to discover and enjoy; leave your favorites in the comments. ◆ ◆ ◆ Xian Zhang, conductor Thinking about Stravinsky, the first thing that jumps to my mind is the beginning of the second part of “The Rite of Spring” — “The Sacrifice.” I’m reminded of the video that Leonard Bernstein made rehearsing it, and of its powerful use in Disney’s “Fantasia,” as dinosaurs roam the earth. It’s a quiet, tension-filled moment after all of the decibels before and after. Seeing Bernstein rehearse, and hearing him conduct this passage, highlights what is so special and vivid about this part of the score. To my ears, it is the best example of how primitive, intuitive and wild music could be in the early 20th century.