The title means, ‘The Star Faced One’, although the work is generally known by its French title, Le Roi des Etoiles. It has always been the most elusive of Stravinsky's major scores. Composed in 1911–12 and published in 1913, it soon went out of print and remained so until recently. The work was not performed until 1939, and subsequent performances have been rare. Although there have been signs of increasing interest in Zvezdoliki during the last decade, performances are unlikely to become frequent, owing to the difficulty of the chorus part and to the fact that a large orchestra—quadruple wind and eight horns—is required for a piece lasting only six minutes. The recording Stravinsky made in 1962 is indispensable but not, perhaps, irreproachable. He considered it to have been one of his best, but the tempi are much faster than his score indicates and it could be argued that they run away with something of the music's character.