Michael Henderson

Worshipping at the shrines

issue 18 November 2006

So far as Robert Craft is concerned, Stravinsky represents a mine of limitless resource. Having spent the last 23 years of the composer’s life serving him as fan, friend, conductor, associate and general reviver of spirits, virtually as a member of the family, he remains the most loyal of servants, righting every wrong, fighting every battle and keeping the flame aglow. He has even arranged to be buried alongside Stravinsky and his second wife, Vera, in Venice, for, as the composer told him, ‘we are a trio con brio’.

So the question must be asked: is the old boy worth it? When he died in 1971 Stravinsky was widely considered to be the most famous ‘serious’ musician in the world (Lorenz Hart gave him a name check in Pal Joey), and the greatest composer. Indeed, he was held to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, and that reputation seems safe, even if others, notably Debussy, Sibelius, Bartok, Richard Strauss and Shostakovich, appear to have more bottle age.

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