Stravinsky: Selected Correspondence Volume 3

by Robert Craft

At the centre of this third and final volume of letters to and from Igor Stravinsky is four decades of the composer's correspondence with his publishers. Stravinsky's letters to Schotts cover the years 1928-39 and the publication of the Violin Concerto, the Concerto per due pianoforte soli, Jeu de Cartes, the Concerto in E flat, and the Symphony in C. His letters to Associated Music Publishers span the years 1940-7, while twenty-two years of correspondence with Boosey & Hawkes reveals much about the development of Stravinsky's works in progress, the performances of his music, and his projects and plans. These letters offer fascinating glimpses into his daily life - musical and otherwise - clearly exhibiting his meticulousness, his immense vitality, and his unbounded creativity. Here also is Stravinsky's correspondence with Debussy, Satie, Ravel and Poulenc, and with literary collaborators, C. F. Ramuz (Histoire du Soldat), and Andre Gide (Persephone). The correspondence with Charles-Albert Cingria, one of Stravinsky's closest friends, shows how the composer was influenced by Cingria's views on art, literature, and religion, while the letters from musicologist and organist, Jacques Handschin (the only Russian contemporary of Stravinsky's who was an influence on him in later life), contain the sole published reference to the possibility that before the Russian Revolution, Stravinsky may have been 'leftist-minded'. A fascinating collection on its own, this volume joins the first two to form an essential document in the history of twentieth-century music.

588 pages, Paperback

First published November 27, 2008