Robert Craft Knihy

Deník, ve kterém americký dirigent Robert Craft zachycuje hovory, poznámky a výroky Stravinského na koncertních turné, které nebylo možno zařadit do předchozí knihy Rozhovorů se Stravinským (česky I. F. Stravinskij, Rozhovory s Robertem Craftem). Brilantní črty o jednotlivcích patřících k vybrané stovce lidí našeho věku (např. Auden, Eliot, Thomas, Forster, Kennedy, Chruščov, Pound, Cocteau, Nabokov, Beckett, Perse, Valéry, Bergman). Charakteristickými rysy Deníku jsou „umění zkratky, humor a plnost myšlenky na malé ploše, otřesná upřímnost, kus chtěné recese, vtip, výstižnost, hloubka a lehkost“ (P. Faltin ve slovenské předmluvě k Deníku prostopášníka).

The narrative explores Robert Craft's extraordinary friendship with Igor Stravinsky, spanning from 1948 until the composer's death in 1971. It delves into Craft's life, highlighting his experiences before, during, and after his close collaboration with Stravinsky, including his time living in the Stravinsky household. This account offers insights into their artistic partnership and the personal dynamics that shaped their relationship.

Presents a selection of letters to and from Igor Stravinsky. This book provides information about Stravinsky's relationships with other musicians, and about his methods of composition. Based on letters to Stravinsky from his first wife Catherine, it helps in an understanding of the composer's personal and family life.

This initial selection from the extraordinary lifetime of letters to and from Igor Stravinsky, annotated by his friend and associate Robert Craft, includes correspondence with W. H. Auden, Jean Cocteau, Lincoln Kirstein and other friends, as well as Stravinsky's letters to Nadia Boulanger, Ernest Ansermet, and Craft himself. The book presents a wealth of previously unpublished information about Stravinsky's relationships with other musicians, and about his methods of composition. The opening section, based on letters to Stravinsky from his first wife Catherine, is among the most important material yet made available for an understanding of the composer's personal and family life.If the exchanges with Auden (The Rake's Progress) and Cocteau (Oedipus Rex) take first place for general interest, the letters to Ansermet - who conducted more performances of Stravinsky's music than anyone but the composer himself - give a remarkable view of the musical and ballet worlds, especially of the Diaghilev period, and of the great impresario himself. This book, accompanied by two further volumes, is a major contribution to the Stravinsky canon and to the cultural history of the twentieth century.

Robert Craft was assistant, companion and confidant to Igor Stravinsky for the last two decades of the composer's life, an intimate working relationship that is unique in musical history. Now, in his 90th year, Craft has produced a book of astonishing freshness, warmth and wit as he surveys through the lens of his own distinctive position Stravinsky's relationships with others: family members to fellow composers to some of the greatest writers, philosophers, politicians and artists of the time.

Junto a las cuestiones más estrictamente musicales los problemas fundamentales de composición e interpretación de la música contemporánea en las Conversaciones con IGOR STRAVINSKY ocupan un lugar central los recuerdos de su juventud en Rusia y su aprendizaje con Rimsky-Korsakov, su colaboración con el Ballet Ruso de Diaghilev y su relación con poetas, pintores y otros músicos. El libro presenta, además, documentos de indudable valor testimonial: cartas de Diaghilev, Debussy, Ravel, Valéry, Gide y W. H. Auden, así como el primer esbozo de la ópera The Rake1s Progress. Al hilo de las preguntas planteadas por Robert Craft, músico y amigo de Stravinsky, surge así, más allá del dato biográfico, un panorama de la vida musical de la primera mitad de nuestro siglo, expuesto por una de sus principales figuras.