Robert Craft, Stravinsky Adviser and Steward, Dies at 92

[pherank]

Robert Craft, Stravinsky Adviser and Steward, Dies at 92
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/arts/music/robert-craft-stravinsky-adviser-and-steward-dies-at-92.html

Mr. Craft spent nearly a quarter-century as Stravinsky’s amanuensis, rehearsal conductor, musical adviser, globe-trotting traveling companion and surrogate son. After Stravinsky’s death in 1971, at 88, he was a writer, lecturer, conductor, public intellectual and keeper of the Stravinskian flame.

[dirac]

Thank you for posting, pherank. RIP to a controversial figure. He occupied a position in relation to Stravinsky that may well be unique in the annals of music, or art. He was always a lively, if not always reliable, read.

I know nothing of the origins of the author’s obsession to remove me from countless events, though the obvious diagnosis would be Freud’s equation of odium and envy. Whereas I spent twenty-three years living in close daily contact with Stravinsky, Walsh never met him. He provides dates, places, rumors, but is unable to supply contexts, circumstances, and descriptions of what actually happened. Throughout the new biography, gaps occur whenever I was too tired to keep my diary up to date. Walsh even captions a photo taken in January 1947: “Studying the score of Perséphone with James Fassett [the producer] and Robert Craft, who has sneaked into the photograph.” In reality, the undoctored original of this picture shows several other people, now airbrushed out, standing between Stravinsky and me; in fact, I was at the end of a queue, positioned there by the photographer herself, and did not come close to Stravinsky.

[DanielBenton]

I can tell you that Craft's recordings of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern were incredibly important to us studying composition in the 60s.

[dirac]

Craft's passing is noted in his hometown paper.

Crawford said her uncle was born and raised in Kingston in the family home at 41 Johnston Ave. Craft celebrated his 86th birthday at a party sponsored by Friends of Historic Kingston and which took place at the Old Dutch Church on Wall Street, she said.

....Craft will be buried at San Michele, a cemetery island in Venice, according to The New York Times. Crawford said the burial site was “up in the air” and “a point of contention” in the family.

[dirac]

I can tell you that Craft's recordings of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern were incredibly important to us studying composition in the 60s.

Thank you, DanielBenton, for sharing that. Craft was also a devotee of early music, although I was a bit disappointed by his Gesualdo recordings.