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Stravinsky: Discoveries and Memories
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 - from family members to fellow composers to some of the greatest writers, philosophers, politicians and artists of the time. Craft has written often of this period, but in Discoveries and Memories , he explores areas of the composer's life that he has never before touched upon. Peppered with delightful anecdotes, it is at times revelatory, showing sides of Stravinsky that only now Craft feels able to consider. The years have given Robert Craft a balanced view of the composer he knew so well. Not only was he present at important meetings, rehearsals and premieres as well as numerous dinners and parties, he was also there when Stravinsky reminisced about the early years; the composer trusted him and gave him unique access to his archives. In the centenary year of the notorious Paris premiere of The Rite of Spring , Discoveries and Memories presents a vivid picture of one of the greatest composers in living memory.
- GenresMusicNonfiction
359 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
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December 21, 2024
Robert Craft has mellowed as he grows older - like so many of us old-timers. Physicists capriciously call it Entropy.
As if all the wisdom of the aged was a byproduct of the mere movement (and thought) of slowing human objects in space!
Craft’s master, Igor Stravinsky, mellowed too. But guess what?
He would never for a moment have extinguished the Fire of his Genius in inaction. No.
Right up to the time of his death in his mid-eighties, he remained Fully and Vibrantly Alive.
So many of the old timers of my age have settled comfortably into a quietly obedient life in the Suburbs of the Law. Not so old Igor!
Like his close musical friend Eliot Carter, he continually grappled his way up into the heights of the Soaring Mountains of the Spirit.
When I was a callow undergraduate in the sixties, I had the fire of creativity, for which I was rewarded. But no endurance, so I wilted. But a pack-a-day smoker like Stravinsky was still Roaring in his eighties.
Craft, in the ancient, classical model of amanuensis to this feisty but failing, elderly but wealthy composer, was Stravinsky’s aide, copyist, understudy and nurse.
He was indispensable to the many needs of this old octogenarian superstar.
There is one famous DVD from those years (still available) of Canada’s tribute to the disabled old man at Toronto’s Massey Hall, and its working prelude - which shows the energetic, though perpetually seated Stravinsky putting the CBC Orchestra through its rehearsal paces with his own great Dumbarton Oaks Concerto.
And you can be sure Craft fidgeted out in the wings, fearing the old smoker’s lungs might suddenly fail!
You may know Dumbarton Oaks as the Washington home of the US diplomat Robert Bliss in the forties.
Well, Bliss commissioned the concerto.
You know, there is a recently-published and utterly charming memoir of living on his estate back then, by a lady who was the daughter of the diplomat’s servants... it’s called Downstairs, Upstairs by Ann Côté - and it’s a Wonderful cozy read for anyone interested in those days.
Anyway, my own connection with Stravinsky began in 1968, when I bought his Favourite Short Pieces album. Still available on iTunes and Spotify, I think.
With that album, the Dumbarton piece became my all-time fave classical diversion.
What a role model for senior citizens old Igor was! This is happy music - gregarious though complex, Bach-like in its sheer energy, and toe-tappingly rhythmic, as his music always is!
And Craft’s book is an indispensable, up-close-and-personal look at - not only I.S. - but MANY of the great artists, composers and writers of the 20th Century by a man lucky enough to have met most of them.
And he met them in the capacity of Stravinsky’s man Friday.
Everyone recognizes the composer of The Rite of Spring and The Firebird, but who knew he was close pals with a great many of the greatest geniuses of the modern artistic world?
Robert Craft takes the role of tell-all fly on the wall over cocktails or at Michelin 3-star bistros, while Stravinsky and his amazing friends trade quips and rarely-heard memories.
Here we have Aldous Huxley, Pablo Picasso, W.H. Auden, Salvador Dali, and T.S. Eliot - to name but a very few - chuckling over each other's outré punchlines, and sharing each other's secrets.
Craft, a great musician in his own right, has written quite a few books about these heady years, and this is certainly one of the best of them.
Four big stars. I loved it!
If you read it, you’ll chuckle, shake your head in awe... and THINK about what these amazing guys have said and accomplished.
For ALL of them were folks whom old age could NEVER silence.
https://youtu.be/8BosLWCBAjM
As if all the wisdom of the aged was a byproduct of the mere movement (and thought) of slowing human objects in space!
Craft’s master, Igor Stravinsky, mellowed too. But guess what?
He would never for a moment have extinguished the Fire of his Genius in inaction. No.
Right up to the time of his death in his mid-eighties, he remained Fully and Vibrantly Alive.
So many of the old timers of my age have settled comfortably into a quietly obedient life in the Suburbs of the Law. Not so old Igor!
Like his close musical friend Eliot Carter, he continually grappled his way up into the heights of the Soaring Mountains of the Spirit.
When I was a callow undergraduate in the sixties, I had the fire of creativity, for which I was rewarded. But no endurance, so I wilted. But a pack-a-day smoker like Stravinsky was still Roaring in his eighties.
Craft, in the ancient, classical model of amanuensis to this feisty but failing, elderly but wealthy composer, was Stravinsky’s aide, copyist, understudy and nurse.
He was indispensable to the many needs of this old octogenarian superstar.
There is one famous DVD from those years (still available) of Canada’s tribute to the disabled old man at Toronto’s Massey Hall, and its working prelude - which shows the energetic, though perpetually seated Stravinsky putting the CBC Orchestra through its rehearsal paces with his own great Dumbarton Oaks Concerto.
And you can be sure Craft fidgeted out in the wings, fearing the old smoker’s lungs might suddenly fail!
You may know Dumbarton Oaks as the Washington home of the US diplomat Robert Bliss in the forties.
Well, Bliss commissioned the concerto.
You know, there is a recently-published and utterly charming memoir of living on his estate back then, by a lady who was the daughter of the diplomat’s servants... it’s called Downstairs, Upstairs by Ann Côté - and it’s a Wonderful cozy read for anyone interested in those days.
Anyway, my own connection with Stravinsky began in 1968, when I bought his Favourite Short Pieces album. Still available on iTunes and Spotify, I think.
With that album, the Dumbarton piece became my all-time fave classical diversion.
What a role model for senior citizens old Igor was! This is happy music - gregarious though complex, Bach-like in its sheer energy, and toe-tappingly rhythmic, as his music always is!
And Craft’s book is an indispensable, up-close-and-personal look at - not only I.S. - but MANY of the great artists, composers and writers of the 20th Century by a man lucky enough to have met most of them.
And he met them in the capacity of Stravinsky’s man Friday.
Everyone recognizes the composer of The Rite of Spring and The Firebird, but who knew he was close pals with a great many of the greatest geniuses of the modern artistic world?
Robert Craft takes the role of tell-all fly on the wall over cocktails or at Michelin 3-star bistros, while Stravinsky and his amazing friends trade quips and rarely-heard memories.
Here we have Aldous Huxley, Pablo Picasso, W.H. Auden, Salvador Dali, and T.S. Eliot - to name but a very few - chuckling over each other's outré punchlines, and sharing each other's secrets.
Craft, a great musician in his own right, has written quite a few books about these heady years, and this is certainly one of the best of them.
Four big stars. I loved it!
If you read it, you’ll chuckle, shake your head in awe... and THINK about what these amazing guys have said and accomplished.
For ALL of them were folks whom old age could NEVER silence.
https://youtu.be/8BosLWCBAjM
May 5, 2019
Último libro publicado en vida (2013) de Robert Craft, que falleció un par de años después, habiendo pasado el umbral de los 90. Craft es una celebridad del mundo de la música clásica por haber sido el amanuensis musical de Igor Stravinsky durante más de 20 años y por su labor de director de orquesta, escritor y divulgador musical: redescubrió Gesualdo cuando ya nadie se acordaba de él, grabó Schoenberg con su aprovación y escribío los famosos libros de conversaciones con el compositor, además de una serie de diarios y ensayos que fueron publicados después de la muerte del ruso en 1971.
Este libro es uno de ellos, aunque no es el primero que leo. El año pasado devoré en una semana el voluminoso DOWN A PATH OF WONDER, escrito la decada anterior. Salvo por interrupciones varias, casi podría decir lo mismo esta vez, ya que Craft suele producir una lectura muy fluida y adictiva (especialmente si eres melómano), siendo la constante aportación de información detalladísima (y sin atisbo de fatiga para el lector) una de sus grandes virtudes. Básicamente, Craft te hace sentir que conoces al compositor mejor que nadie y vives con ellos el avance de la historia: Stravinsky vivió las dos grandes guerras, pero también las consecuencias de la revolución rusa y los albores de la guerra fría; convertirse en ciudadano estadounidense no le impidió visitar la extinta URSS durante la decada de los 60. La ventaja de ser alguien tan importante es la de codearte con los artistas más importantes y no hay página de los libros de Craft que no contenga referencia a encuentros con otros artistas: T.S. Eliot, Aldous Huxley (ambos vecinos de Stravinsky en Hollywood), Pablo Picasso, Thomas Mann, decenas de otros compositores, actores, políticos,... el compositor es el resumen de la aventura del siglo XX y Craft, que goza de una gran memoria, se entrega a ello. Es precisamente esa habilidad de incluir y justificar hasta el más nimio detalle lo que siempre me ha posicionado a favor de él cuando el mundillo de la música empezó a resentir de su posición privilegiada. Incluyendo la mohina familia del compositor, que queda a menudo mal parada por su actitud leonina frente a la fortuna del ruso. En otro libro titulado GLIMPSES OF A LIFE hay un capítulo entero dedicado a desenmascarar las acciones fraudulentas de la familia con una precisión pasmosa. Ahí entra quizá el mayor contratiempo de Craft: la lujuria por la observación indiscreta, que a veces deja un sabor un tanto amargo.
Quizá la mayor pega de este nuevo volumen de ensayos y memorias es la sensación de repetición. Aquellos que hemos leído la mayor parte de lo que ha escrito Craft (con o sin Stravinsky detrás) la mayor parte de lo que cuentan estas páginas es muy familiar. De hecho, DOWN A PATH OF WONDER contiene capítulos muy similares a los que contiene este, con la importante diferencia de un cambio en el punto de vista y la aportación de información renovada: en el publicado anteriormente hay capítulos individuales dedicados a Schoenberg y Webern. Aquí recicla parte de esa información, pero puesta en relación con Stravinsky.
El libro está dividido en 3 partes: 1 "THE MUSIC" 2 "THE MAN" y 3 "FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES". Empecé ojeando la tercera, ya que consiste en un ramillete de perfiles de artistas y celebridades y su paso por la vida del compositor (Nino Rota, George Gershwin, Joyce, Proust... Benito Mussolini -!-). Ojeando esta parte ya no pude soltar el libro...la de más jugo es sin duda la segunda, con un capítulo entero dedicado a la "ambivalencia sexual" de Stravinsky en sus años mozos (generó una enorme polémica en su momento) y varios a las amargas disputas familiares, que junto a los capítulos dedicados en GLIMPSES OF A LIFE me recordó al rigor investigador de Errol Morris y el dramatismo familiar de Asghar Farhadi. El mejor de todos es sin duda "THE HOLLYWOOD YEARS", en el que el compositor se cruza con medio star-system, incluyendo a un Groucho Marx que al ver partir al compositor de una fiesta le espeta "Maestro, give my regards to Beethoven". El libro, como pasa con todos los de Craft, está repleto de citas directas del artista (y de otros también) y son prueba de la fuerte personalidad del ruso. Es este uno de los pocos capítulos en los que Craft hace algún guiño al presente:
"The return of the Stravinskys to Europe in 1951 left an impression transatlantically that they had become American patriots critical of European class structures. Although they themselves did not vote, they praised what was then known as American democracy (which became the military-industrial catastrophe followed by the corporatocracy that rules the country in 2013.)"
Lástima que Robert Craft no viviera un poco más para ver el descubrimiento de una obra perdida durante los años rusos. Aunque él no imaginaría el circo en que se convertiría su país con la elección de Trump el año después de su muerte.
Este libro es uno de ellos, aunque no es el primero que leo. El año pasado devoré en una semana el voluminoso DOWN A PATH OF WONDER, escrito la decada anterior. Salvo por interrupciones varias, casi podría decir lo mismo esta vez, ya que Craft suele producir una lectura muy fluida y adictiva (especialmente si eres melómano), siendo la constante aportación de información detalladísima (y sin atisbo de fatiga para el lector) una de sus grandes virtudes. Básicamente, Craft te hace sentir que conoces al compositor mejor que nadie y vives con ellos el avance de la historia: Stravinsky vivió las dos grandes guerras, pero también las consecuencias de la revolución rusa y los albores de la guerra fría; convertirse en ciudadano estadounidense no le impidió visitar la extinta URSS durante la decada de los 60. La ventaja de ser alguien tan importante es la de codearte con los artistas más importantes y no hay página de los libros de Craft que no contenga referencia a encuentros con otros artistas: T.S. Eliot, Aldous Huxley (ambos vecinos de Stravinsky en Hollywood), Pablo Picasso, Thomas Mann, decenas de otros compositores, actores, políticos,... el compositor es el resumen de la aventura del siglo XX y Craft, que goza de una gran memoria, se entrega a ello. Es precisamente esa habilidad de incluir y justificar hasta el más nimio detalle lo que siempre me ha posicionado a favor de él cuando el mundillo de la música empezó a resentir de su posición privilegiada. Incluyendo la mohina familia del compositor, que queda a menudo mal parada por su actitud leonina frente a la fortuna del ruso. En otro libro titulado GLIMPSES OF A LIFE hay un capítulo entero dedicado a desenmascarar las acciones fraudulentas de la familia con una precisión pasmosa. Ahí entra quizá el mayor contratiempo de Craft: la lujuria por la observación indiscreta, que a veces deja un sabor un tanto amargo.
Quizá la mayor pega de este nuevo volumen de ensayos y memorias es la sensación de repetición. Aquellos que hemos leído la mayor parte de lo que ha escrito Craft (con o sin Stravinsky detrás) la mayor parte de lo que cuentan estas páginas es muy familiar. De hecho, DOWN A PATH OF WONDER contiene capítulos muy similares a los que contiene este, con la importante diferencia de un cambio en el punto de vista y la aportación de información renovada: en el publicado anteriormente hay capítulos individuales dedicados a Schoenberg y Webern. Aquí recicla parte de esa información, pero puesta en relación con Stravinsky.
El libro está dividido en 3 partes: 1 "THE MUSIC" 2 "THE MAN" y 3 "FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES". Empecé ojeando la tercera, ya que consiste en un ramillete de perfiles de artistas y celebridades y su paso por la vida del compositor (Nino Rota, George Gershwin, Joyce, Proust... Benito Mussolini -!-). Ojeando esta parte ya no pude soltar el libro...la de más jugo es sin duda la segunda, con un capítulo entero dedicado a la "ambivalencia sexual" de Stravinsky en sus años mozos (generó una enorme polémica en su momento) y varios a las amargas disputas familiares, que junto a los capítulos dedicados en GLIMPSES OF A LIFE me recordó al rigor investigador de Errol Morris y el dramatismo familiar de Asghar Farhadi. El mejor de todos es sin duda "THE HOLLYWOOD YEARS", en el que el compositor se cruza con medio star-system, incluyendo a un Groucho Marx que al ver partir al compositor de una fiesta le espeta "Maestro, give my regards to Beethoven". El libro, como pasa con todos los de Craft, está repleto de citas directas del artista (y de otros también) y son prueba de la fuerte personalidad del ruso. Es este uno de los pocos capítulos en los que Craft hace algún guiño al presente:
"The return of the Stravinskys to Europe in 1951 left an impression transatlantically that they had become American patriots critical of European class structures. Although they themselves did not vote, they praised what was then known as American democracy (which became the military-industrial catastrophe followed by the corporatocracy that rules the country in 2013.)"
Lástima que Robert Craft no viviera un poco más para ver el descubrimiento de una obra perdida durante los años rusos. Aunque él no imaginaría el circo en que se convertiría su país con la elección de Trump el año después de su muerte.
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