Stravinsky: Selected Correspondence Volume 2

(Paperback, Main)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

In this second volume of Igor Stravinskys correspondence - selected and annotated by his friend and associate Robert Craft - we are given a wealth of material relating to the composers association with dance, to his relationship with other composers and musicians, and to the daily, financial, and familial concerns of his life. Of particular value is his correspondence with Serge Diaghilev, with Vaslav Nijinsky, with Leon Bakst, and with Emile Jaques-Dalcroze. There is a history in letters of Firebird, Stravinskys most popular ballet score, and of Jeu de Cartes, his first Balanchine commission. Also included are letters to and from Pierre Monteux - a correspondence that began in 1912 (the year before the scandalous premiere of Le Sacre du Printemps, with Monteux conducting) and lasted for forty-five years. A vivid picture of musical life in the emigre community in Hollywood during the 1950s and 1960s emerges from the correspondence with Ernst Krenek, while Stravinskys letters to Nicolas Nabokov are an invaluable record of musical activities during the last thirty years of his life, including the premiere of his opera The Rakes Progress. Together with the accompanying two volumes, this book affords an extraordinary insight into the life and work of a complex, brilliant artist.

Author Bio

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 composers death in 1971. Craft lived with the family in California and later in New York and remained close to the composers widow Vera, until her death in 1982.