Customer Reviews

Igor Stravinsky (20th Century Composers)

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Igor Stravinsky is truly one of the giants, if not the giant, of 20th century music. Michael Oliver accurately captures the essence of the man and his music in this book about the man and his life and times.

First of all, the book is well written. The music is described thoroughly and there is also a discography as well as a catalogue of the works written by Stravinsky. For the most part, this book is a biography with its central focus on Stravinsky. We meet various characters that played an important role in Stravinsky's life including the impresario Serge Diaghilev. I highly recommend this book to anybody who wants to be enlightened about one of the giants of twentieth century music.

This is an interesting little book about a somewhat overlooked composer. The author has packed it with a number of surprising details of his private life which help give insight into his creative genius. Additionally, he spent a great deal of time analyzing each of his major works and then lining them up to demonstrate the evolution of his final imprint on music. Near the end of his life, for instance, the influence of Arnold Schoenberg's twelve note serial techniques began to seep into Stravinsky's works for the first time - something he had long resisted. Finally, the book is filled with rare and long forgotten photographs of the man and his time and these alone are almost worth the price of the book.