CIA flew the Boston Symphony Orchestra to Paris to play a concert to win "hearts & minds" of the French toward the US & away from Shostakovich & the Soviets

Shout-out to the time the CIA flew the Boston Symphony Orchestra to Paris to play a concert to win "hearts & minds" of the French toward the US & away from Shostakovich & the Soviets

CCF = Congress for Cultural Freedom, the CIA's premier arts & music cut-out during the Cold War pic.twitter.com/FOaS3Hxr4C

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) December 20, 2023

Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, 1913.  

Stravinsky was russian but later got french and then American citizenship.  Even though russian born, this is what makes him the perfect anti-Soviet cultural figure,  

considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century and a pivotal figure in modernist music. 

If you're not moved by the beauty of the piece, don't sweat it.  Not everyone swooned at Stravinsky's modernist music.  

While some composers and academics of the time disliked the avant-garde nature of Stravinsky's music, particularly his ballet,The Rite of Spring, . . .