Stravinsky: The Second Exile: France and America, 1934–1971 - Softcover

Walsh, Stephen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520256158 ISBN 13: 9780520256156

Publisher: University of California Press, 2008

Synopsis

Stephen Walsh's magisterial, engagingly written two-volume Stravinsky is the most detailed and extensive work available on the life of the man widely regarded as the greatest composer of the twentieth century. This second volume takes up the composer's story in 1934, in a Europe growing ever more chaotic in the lead-up to World War II. Walsh follows Stravinsky's emigration to the United States, where he courted Hollywood, associated with writers and artists including Aldous Huxley, W.H. Auden, and George Balanchine, began a career as a conductor and recording artist, and composed a string of masterpieces that changed the course of twentieth-century music. Stravinsky: The Second Exile takes full account of Russian-language sources, including much correspondence, made available since the composer's death and since the fall of the Soviet Union, and is the first work to thoroughly assess the authenticity of many of the writings published under Stravinsky's name.

About this title

About the Author:

Stephen Walsh is Professor in the School of Music at Cardiff University. He is author of The Music of Stravinsky among other books.

From Publishers Weekly:

Starred Review. In following Igor Stravinsky's journeys from Paris to America and from neoclassicism to serialism, critic and musicologist Walsh concludes his definitive two-volume account of the life of the most acclaimed composer of the 20th century. Details of the composition, performance, recording and reception of the works of this prolific period-neoclassical ones like Oedipus Rex, Orpheus and The Rake's Progress; serialist ones like The Flood, Agon and the Requiem Canticles-absorb the attention of both subject and author. Readers would benefit from some familiarity with Stravinsky's considerable oeuvre, as Walsh comments colorfully on the pieces, but he is mostly concerned with setting the record straight on dates, itineraries, motivations and who said what to whom. In doing so, he often takes issue with Robert Craft, Stravinsky's indispensable assistant, co-conductor and ghostwriter, whose published reminiscences have long stood as the most complete record of the composer's life. Walsh convincingly argues that Craft's intense personal involvement in Stravinsky's life-he describes their relationship as "a miniature ecosystem"-makes him a biased witness or imprecise observer, and Walsh's meticulous consideration makes for a valuable corrective. Amidst all the data, Walsh also demonstrates a gift for lively metaphor that brings his subject to life in flashes-a doer rather than a thinker, a composer devoted to the purity of his art and a perpetually surprising creative genius. Highly recommended. 16pp of halftones, not seen by PW.
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About this edition

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0520256158
• ISBN 13: 9780520256156
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 752