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01534_Field_170.cap.txt
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1996-03-14
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For more than
half a century
Stravinsky was
the most talked
about and the
most influental
composer of his
day. At the start
of his long life he
had met Peter
Tchaikovsky, and
at the end of his
life he rivalled
the audacious
musical explorers
of the Sixties
#
Stravinsky was
part of a huge
explosion of
artistic talent - in
painting, music,
literature, poetry
and theatre -
which overtook
Russia in the
years before the
Revolution of
1917. Among his
friends and
contemporaries
were Ernest
Ansermet (left),
Sergei Diaghilev
(on Stravinsky's
right) and Sergei
Prokofiev (right)
#
The collaboration
between
Stravinsky and
Diaghilev was one
of the most
fruitful and
innovative
artistic
associations of
the century.
Almost all that is
most worthwhile
in modern dance
owes something
to the revolution
wrought in music
and theatre-craft
by Stravinsky
and Diaghilev
#
The fate of
Shostakovich
demonstrates
what Stravinsky
might have faced
had he gone back
to Russia.
Shostakovich was
badgered all his
life by political
commissars. An
avant-garde
experimenter like
Stravinsky would
never have been
allowed to work,
and would
probably never
have survived
the Stalinist
purges
#
Though they met
only once (and
Stravinsky forgot
the occasion), the
musical links
between
Stravinsky and
Arnold
Schoenberg are
strong.
Stravinsky
attempted works
in the twelve-
tone technique
pioneered by
Schoenberg, but
only after the
latter's death
#
By the time of his 85th birthday, which was marked by worldwide
celebrations, Stravinsky was the grand old man of classical music.
But he did not see it that way: in 1960, at the age of 78, he wrote
"all my life I have thought of myself as the youngest one."