The story of Stravinsky’s relationships with music publishers is bound up with the political upheavals of the Russian Revolution and two world wars, as well as the copyright laws of countries in which Stravinsky lived and in which his works were published. In the course of his career, his works were published by a bewildering array of firms including M.P. Belaieff, P. Jurgenson, Édition Russe de musique, Adolphe Henn, J. & W. Chester, Éditions de la Sirène, B. Schotts Söhne, Associated Music Publishers, Leeds Music, Mercury Music Corporation, Charling Music, Edward B. Marks, Edwin Kalmus and Boosey & Hawkes. Stravinsky’s Le Faune et la Bergère (1906) was published by the Russian firm of Belaieff which had an office in Leipzig, its aim being to secure Western European copyrights for Russian composers (notably Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky’s teacher). Although Fireworks was issued by the German firm of Schott in November 1909, most of the other works from Stravinsky’s early years up to and including The Firebird (1910) were issued by P. Jurgenson in Moscow. Founded in 1861, by 1900 it was much the largest music publisher in Russia and remained in the hands of the family until the firm was expropriated on Lenin’s orders in 1918, its catalogue forming the basis of the nationalised State Music Publishing House.

Where am I? From the vantage point of a small, pedestrian-only square (nowadays a popular selfie spot), a trio of visual oddities looms large. To the north is a modern-looking edifice with exterior escalators, electrics, plumbing and ventilation pipes. Opposite is a chaos of water-spurting sculptures, including a snake, a treble clef, a bowler hat, giant lips painted rouge, an elephant, some sort of avian creature and a red-headed mermaid with oversize breasts. Equally bizarre, to the west, is a huge graffitied face, a black-and-white self-portrait by the French street-artist Jean-François Perroy (he prefers ‘Jef Aérosol’). Two bulging eyes stare down at those paddling in the shallow water of the fountains, while a single finger, pressed against pursed lips, calls for silence: Chuuuttt! (Shhhhh!).