and igor stravinsky.o had come for the entrance exam to the conservatory, was bent under the weight of folders. they contained the manuscripts of four operas, symphonies, two sonatas and many piano pieces. igor strovinsky first came to see rimsky korsykov when he was already twenty years old man, but his compositional baggage was almost empty. a student of the law faculty of st. petersburg university , stravinsky, was just beginning to take his first steps in composition. having met both young people, rimsky -korsakov made a paradoxical decision. he enrolled the child prodigy prokofiev in the conservatory, and offered strovinsky to become his private student. he always studied for free. the future showed that both of rimsky -korsakov's decisions were absolutely correct. the ambitious, self-confident prokofiev in conservatory did not lose his passion. but he acquired the necessary knowledge, and the still immature stravinsky learned to trust his ear and became infected with a passion for self-education. th