Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was perhaps the twentieth century's most celebrated composer, a leading light of modernism and a restlessly creative artist. This new entry in the Critical Lives series traces the story of Stravinsky's life and work, setting him in the context of the turbulent times in which he lived. Born in Russia, Stravinsky spent most of his life in exile-and while his work was deliberately cosmopolitan, the pain of estrangement nonetheless left its mark on the man and his work, distinguishable in an ever-present sense of loss. Jonathan Cross shows how that work emerged over the course of decades spent in Paris, Los Angeles, and elsewhere, in an artistic circle that included Joyce, Picasso, and Proust and that culminated in Stravinsky being celebrated by both the White House and the Kremlin as one of the great artistic forces of the era.
Approachable and absorbing, Cross's biography enables us to see Stravinsky's life and artistic achievement in a new light, understanding how his work both reflected and shaped his times.
Industry Reviews
"A fitting examination of the man Cross refers to as the twentieth century's most celebrated composer. Cross compares his subject to the famous nesting matryoshka dolls of Russia. What one first perceives as a whole is a series of wholes that only deepen the mystery once the doll owner has begun unwinding the layers. So, too, with Stravinsky. . . . Cross's eye and ear for detail and ability to add something quiet but significant to the larger conversation about his subject make Igor Stravinsky well worth reading."
--John Garratt "Spectrum Culture"
"Cross is a well-known Stravinsky scholar, having written The Stravinsky Legacy and edited The Cambridge Companion to Stravinsky. True to form, his contribution to the 'Critical Lives' series is deeply insightful, highly engaging, but not technical, and he gives the reader a multifaceted understanding of Stravinsky's life and music. Cross effectively interweaves and connects biographical details, pivotal life events, approachable musical analysis, and broad cultural trends. Particularly cogent is his use of complementary personal anecdotes and large-scale influences in Stravinsky's works. Musicians and non-musicians alike will enjoy this excellent contribution to studies of Stravinsky's life and times."
-- "Choice"
"In my view, Jonathan Cross's brief Stravinsky in the Reaktion series of Critical Lives could not be bettered. Indeed, it is a model of elegant lucid writing and clear organization, providing an overview of the composer's life and work with a useful light-handed apercu of current scholarship and enlivened by the author's own distinctive literary persona and critical perceptions. Much additional color, too, is provided by his evident visual sensibility--not, I'm afraid, a conspicuous feature of most musicological publications. . . . Cross also vividly emphasizes the importance of the wider cosmopolitan cultural context of interwar Paris with which Stravinsky totally identified himself in the genesis of his neoclassical works."-- "Musical Times"
"True to form for Critical Lives, Jonathan Cross packs a rich life into a lean yet bountiful biography in Igor Stravinsky."--John Garratt "PopMatters"
