An intriguing signed bust portrait photograph of the great composer and conductor, inscribed to the noted Polish pianist, composer and conductor, Ignace Strasvogel: "To excellent pianist Ignace Strasvogel with my best compliments / I Stravinsky / April 1940 / N-Y."  8 x 10 inches (20 x 25 cm). Some surface losses, stains and creases mostly around the edges and nicely double matted mostly out of view. 

Stravinsky conducted the NY Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall on April 3, 1940 in performances of his works, including Le Chant du Rossignol, L'Oiseau de Feu, and Le Sacre Du Printemps. It is likely that the present photograph was inscribed on or around that date.

Born in Warsaw, Strasfogel studied at the Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin where he was a pupil of modernist composer Franz Schreker. He began his career as a pianist and vocal coach; notably serving as an accompanist for prestigious artists such as Joseph Szigeti, Gregor Piatigorsky, and Lauritz Melchior among other soloists. In 1926, at the age of 17, his two piano sonatas won the Mendelssohn Prize. In 1934, Strasfogel was forced to emigrate from Nazi Germany to the United States. In America, he worked as a pianist and won fame as conductor of the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera.