Stravinsky: Selected Correspondence Volume 1

by Robert Craft

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 The book presents a wealth of previously unpublished information about Stravinsky's relationships with other musicians, and about his methods of composition.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.

508 pages, Paperback

First published November 27, 2008

Reviews

[Vincent Hernot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite being excellently edited and annotated, this volume is not exactly riveting, mostly because there's usually only one side of the correspondence: Stravinsky to Boulanger but not the other around; Stravinsky to Ansemet but not Ansemet to Stravinsky.
Not being familiar with Stravinsky's work as music, I was mostly interested in other aspects (creation, correspondents etc). And as usual with this type of work (Voltaire's letters, say, or Mozart's correspondence with his father), what they reveal is the very human, down-to-earth nature of artists. So Stravinsky is very concerned with royalties being paid, with his fees as conductor, with his running feud with Diaghilev over money. The editor (R. Craft) is apologetic about this, but that's not the main problem for me.
Among the correspondents in this volume are Jean Cocteau and W.H.Auden; the correspondence with Auden is not very exciting, the one with Cocteau is better if only because Cocteau sometimes describes evenings spent with...Picasso, Poulenc, Satie, Picabia, Chanel etc...Nadia Boulanger is in there, too, but mute (there are no letters from her), which is a shame.
Unfortunately then, such moments as given by Cocteau are few and far between, and unless you're an absolute fan of Stravinsky music (there are quite a lot of comments on how to play the music, and about specific pieces), this volume has relatively little to offer. Better read his 3 volumes of interviews with the same Craft.