Memories Comment - Softcover

Stravinsky

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520044029 ISBN 13: 9780520044029

Publisher: University of California Press, 1992

Synopsis

The conversations between Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft are unique in musical history. The contents of this celebrated series of Conversations, dating from the last fifteen years of Stravinsky's life, were taken down by Robert Craft in informal talks with the composer. Craft lived for twenty-one years with the Stravinskys in their Hollywood home, or nearby, and for two more years in a next-door hotel room in New York. In the early 1950s he accompanied the composer on his concert tours, and from the mid-1950s to the end of Stravinsky's life co-conducted his concerts.

This newly edited and re-structured one-volume version brings Stravinsky's reflections on his childhood, his family life, professional associates and personal friendships into sharper focus and places the major compositions in their cultural milieux. The Conversations books are the only published writings attributed to Stravinsky that are actually 'by him', in the sense of fidelity to the substance of his thoughts, making this volume required reading for all students and lovers of Stravinsky's music.

About this title

Review

"An absolutely scintillating series." --Nicolas Slonimsky, "The Christian Science Monitor" "These books are a treasured contribution to the documentation of music in our time." --David Drew, "The New Statesman" "Stravinsky . . . has a remarkable eye for human singularity and a gift for making it vivid in a few quick strokes." --Alfred Frankenstein, "The New York Times Book Review"

About the Author

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (1882-1971) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor, and is universally acknowledged as the leading and most influential composer of the twentieth century. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by Diaghilev and performed by his Ballets Russes: The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. The latter work provoked a riot and ensured Stravinsky's lasting reputation as a musical revolutionary, who pushed the boundaries of musical composition.

The distinguished conductor, Robert Craft, met Igor Stravinsky in 1948, and developed what proved to be an extraordinarily fruitful artistic partnership from then until the composer's death in 1971. Craft lived with the family in California and later in New York and remained close to the composer's widow Vera, until her death in 1982.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520044029
• ISBN 13: 9780520044029
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 183