Igor Stravinsky

Description

This is a biography of Igor Stravinsky, who is seen as a great inventor and discoverer of modern music, a figure comparable to his close friend and contemporary Pablo Picasso. The book traces the influences that formed Stravinsky's style, setting all his major works in context. It devotes particular attention to his childhood in pre-Revolutionary Russia, whose formative influence Stravinsky acknowledged later in life. His discovery by the impresario Diaghilev, his fruitful collaborations with such choreographers as Mikhail Fokine and George Balanchine, and with many of the great dancers (Nijinsky, Karavina), painters and designers (Bakst, Picasso) of his time are fully described, as well as his many productive relationships with such writers as Cocteau, Gide and W.H. Auden. Above all, the book concentrates on Stravinsky's creativity, describing how his musical mind worked and relating this to his complex personality. This text is part of the 20th-century composers series, examining composers in a biographical context, and offering a comprehensive study of key figures in the creation of 20th-century music. None of the books in the series presume a knowledge of specialized terms or musical notation. Each book in the series features a list of works, a bibliography, and a discography.

Michael Oliver is an acclaimed writer and broadcaster, having compiled numerous programmes for BBC Radio 3 and written regularly for Gramophone and other magazines for over 20 years. He is also the author of Benjamin Britten in the 20th-Century Composers series.

'A near-ideal introduction to the composer.' (Gramophone) 'one's only regret about [Michael Oliver's] two books is that they are not longer.' (Classic CD) 'As a series, Phaidon's 20th Century Composers has brought remarkable variety and a welter of information, both necessary and delightfully trivial. Intended both for the general reader and for the more enthusiatically musical...' (The Scotsman)