Stravinsky: A Creative Spring: Russia and France, 1882-1934

Stravinsky #1

by Stephen Walsh

Widely regarded as the greatest composer of the twentieth century, Igor Stravinsky was central to the development of modernism in art, yet no dependable biography of him exists. Previous studies have drawn too heavily from his own unreliable memoirs and conversations, and until now no biographer has possessed both the musical knowledge to evaluate his art and the linguistic proficiency needed to explore the documentary background of his life--a life whose span extended from tsarist Russia to Switzerland, France, and ultimately the United States.

In this revealing volume, the first of two, Stephen Walsh follows Stravinsky from his birth in 1882 to 1934. He traces the composer's early Russian years, laying bare the complicated relationships within his family and showing how he first displayed his extraordinary talents. Stravinsky's brilliantly creative involvement with the Ballets Russes is illuminated by a sharp sense of the internal artistic politics that animated the group. Portraying Stravinsky's circumstances as an emigré in France trying to make his living as a conductor and pianist as well as a composer, Walsh reveals the true roots of his notorious obsession with money. He also describes the nature of his long affair with Vera Sudeykina.

While always respecting Stravinsky's own insistence that life and art be kept distinct, Stravinsky makes clear precisely how the development of his music was connected to his life and to the intellectual environment in which he found himself. But at the same time it demonstrates the composer's remarkably pragmatic psychology, which led him to consider the welfare of his art to be of paramount importance, before which everything else had to give way. Walsh, long established as an expert on Stravinsky's music, has drawn upon a vast array of material, much of it unpublished or unavailable in English, to bring the man himself, in all his color and genius, to glowing life.

Genres: Music, Biography, History, Classical Music, Nonfiction, Russia, Biography Memoir

720 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Professor Walsh was educated at Kingston Grammar School, St Paul’s School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. From 1963, he worked as a music journalist in London, at first freelance, writing for The Times, Daily Telegraph, and Financial Times, then from 1966 as deputy music critic of The Observer. He has broadcast regularly on musical topics for the BBC; a major feature of BBC Radio 3 programming in 1995 was his six two-hour broadcasts 'Conversations with Craft', in which he talked to Stravinsky's close associate, Robert Craft. Professor Walsh joined Cardiff University as a Senior Lecturer in Music in 1976, and now holds a personal chair in the School. He still contributes music criticism to The Independent and has since published a series of books and long papers on Bartok, Stravinsky, Kurtág and Panufnik, among others. The first volume of his major biography of Stravinsky — Stravinsky: A Creative Spring (Knopf, 1999) — won the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize for the best music book published in the UK in the year 2000. Volume Two — Stravinsky: The Second Exile (also Knopf) — was published in 2006.

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very good, and very thorough - it is very long and only covers the first 50 years of Stravinsky's life (he was close to 90 when he died). It's mostly a biography, but focuses primarily on Stravinsky's musical activities, tracing his influences, stylistic shifts, and the creation of each of his works during those fifty years. Stravinsky and his music are fascinating, and Walsh definitely satifies that fascination.
Walsh's research and scholarship are excellent - he's complete and thorough to the point of exhaustive, but doesn't become too dry or dull. My only problem with his perspective is that he's a little too quick at times to distrust Stravinsky's own accounts of things. To be fair, though, Stravinsky did have very little compunction when it came to manipulating facts in order to serve his own agendas.
Interesting things I learned about Stravinsky from this book:
He and Diaghilev were distantly related.
Despite being very modern, forward-thinking, and even avant-garde in his music, Stravinsky was relentlessly conventional and even old-fashioned in his approach to his personal and domestic life.
During the 1930s, he was surprisingly sympathetic towards fascism.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is part 1 of a massive 2-part biography of Igor Stravinsky, a man who may or may not fit the bill of 20th century's greatest composer, but who almost certainly fits the description of "Composer of the most influential orchestral work of the 20th century (Rite of Spring)". Stephen Walsh doesn't get into the nuts and bolts of Stravinsky's compositional process, but does a great job of telling his story and the circumstances that led to his opportunities.

As I like to do with books like these, it took a while to read because I listened to every piece as it was mentioned. If nothing else, the book forcing a careful listen (in some cases a re-listen) to Igor's catalog in chronological order was illuminating, especially when following along with the written scores. Going in, I was a fan of the first 3 Diaghilev ballets (Firebird-Petrushka-Rite), Suite 2 for Small Orchestra, Pulcinella, and...that was kinda it. But...his early piano sonata and first Symphony are wonderful late Romantic works! Also... I really loved Les Noces, The Soldier's Tale, Apollon Musagete, Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, and the Octet for Wind Instruments.

[Gijs Grob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eerste deel van een lijvige biografie van Stravinsky. Het is vooral een "reactie op"-biografie, die probeert Stravinsky's mystificaties van zijn eigen leven te ontkrachten door veel contemporain materiaal en correspondentie van betrokkenen te raadplegen. Er wordt vooral meticuleus aandacht besteed aan precieze chronologie en Walsh volgt dan ook op het absurde af waar de componist zich op welk moment bevindt. Zodoende is dit een biografie voor mensen die al veel over Stravinsky weten, want de hoeveelheid informatie en het aantal genoemde personen zijn hoog en van de meeste van Stravinsky's werken wordt redelijk bekend verondersteld dat de lezer weet hoe ze klinken.

Voor insiders dus. Niettemin leest het boek als een trein.

[Eric Byrd · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book...but I'll never finish it. A Modigliani postcard has marked the Petrouchka premiere for a year now. When I think 'Stravinsky,' I hunch down in front of my stereo; I don't go to the bookshelf.

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Going to secondary school and college growing up, like all of us, I sometimes had teachers and professors that were experts in their field and could make their subject incredibly interesting, no matter how dry it seemed on paper. On the other hand, I also had teachers and professors who were experts in their field and could not convey their thoughts on their subject in anything other than in an extremely dry manner. I've read a few books by Stephen Walsh now (as he seems to be the only or "best" game in town for a lot of musical subjects): this one, his book on the Romantic Era and his recent Debussy book. I found the Romantic Era book decent but unfortunately find this one (like the Debussy book) in the latter category that i describe teachers. It is comprehensive, yes and I certainly learned a lot, but this biography just did not engage me like the 3 part series by Walker i recently read on Liszt (or his Chopin bio for that matter) or Jan Swafford's books on Beethoven and Mozart, respectively.
There is certainly plenty of material there. Stravinsky's life spanned pre-war and Revolutionary Russia with this volume going all the way up to the rise of the Nazis. During this time, Stravinsky left his home country for Switzerland and eventually France and in the next volume will escape there to America. He writes 2 of the most famous (and my among my most favorite) pieces of music in all of music, the Firebird and Rite of Spring and becomes world famous. He eventually moves to a neoclassical period and will in the next volume enter his serial phase. Along the way are possible affairs with Coco Chanel (at least it is known his family lived in her house) and an actual affair with the woman who would eventually become his second wife in addition to his relationship with numerous collaborators like Diaghilev and Dushkin are explored in depth. He even had a "Taylor Swift-like problem" of having to keep rewriting the Firebird due to copyright issues with the Bolsheviks and others and eventually wrote 3 versions (additional versions in 1919 and 1945).
I must note that Igor comes across as an unlikeable person throughout. It seems like in his autobiography he trashed almost everyone he knew in his childhood and beyond. His treatment of everyone from his agents to collaborators seems harsh at times. But I guess we love our artists for the work foremost.

My overall point is there is a lot there, but i just do not love Walsh's writing style. He is the foremost authority so I will read volume 2 eventually but probably not immediately.

[Derk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stravinsky. A creative spring: Russia and France (2000) is a beautiful, critical, and well-researched biography about the first half of Stravinsky's life: 1882 - 1934. Stephen Walsh extensively covers every aspect of his life and work. It is much more than a biography: you can also discover various new things about composers and artists that are not to be found elsewhere (for example, about Maurice Delage or his influence on Prokofiev and his view on Schonberg as an impressionist).

This biography resonates beautifully with Sjeng Scheijen's biography of Diaghilev. Everything is covered: difficulties in staying financially afloat, artistic development and choices, the influence of the surrounding world. It takes effort to read this biography with all its overwhelming details, but I learnt a lot from it. His biography of Debussy is equally rich. I still plan to read his Mussorgsky and his Circle (2013).

It would be wonderful if Walsh writes a general book about music in the early 20th century sometime. It's wonderful and unique how Walsh manages to highlight intricate mutual influences among various musicians and other artists.

[Derek Henderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

An exhaustive and exhausting account. Ended up abandoning this one, sadly.

[Kyle Wernke · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the finest biographies I’ve ever read. Expansive, authoritative.

[Ralph Burton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book carries a great deal of nostalgia for me as I first read this back in 2019 when this insane world was not quite as insane as it could possibly become. I’ve been fascinated by Stravinsky since my first year of university in which I listened to The Rite of Spring late night in the university starbucks. The music felt forbidden, dangerous even. When I picked up this book in 2019, it shed some light on the Maestro but felt too much like a diary to break through the ice. The author, Stephen Walsh, says in his introduction that he doesn’t want to offer any psychological insight into Stravinsky; thing is, Stravinsky was all psychology. The music gets inside your head to such an absorbing degree but this book never gets inside Stravinsky’s.

Update
On second read (actually, third read), the book chimed with me further. It seems Stravinsky's modernism was a natural reaction to the chaos and carnage of the early twentieth century. Igor's great tragedy is that as this volume concludes, he saw more and more the world depicting the hell of what he had captured with his sounds.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of great info and interesting personal reflections by Stravinsky on his own writing process. Maybe too much info, if that's possible, on Stravinsky's detailed financial dealings with every orchestra and dance company throughout Europe and America. Gets to be a bit overbearing after not too long.