Robert Craft, the noted conductor and widely respected writer and critic on
music, literature, and culture, holds a unique place in world music of today.
He is in the process of recording the complete works of Stravinsky, Schoenberg,
and Webern for Naxos. He has twice won the Grand Prix du Disque as well as the
Edison Prize for his landmark recordings of Schoenberg, Webern, and Varèse.
He has also received a special award from the American Academy and National
Institute of Arts and Letters in recognition of his "creative work"
in literature. In 2002 he was awarded the International Prix du Disque Lifetime
Achievement Award, Cannes Music Festival.
Robert Craft has conducted and recorded with most of the world's major orchestras
in the United States, Europe, Russia, Japan, Korea, Mexico, South America, Australia,
and New Zealand. He is the first American to have conducted Berg's Wozzeck
and Lulu, and his original Webern album enabled music lovers to become
acquainted with this composer's then little-known music. He led the world premières
of Stravinsky's later masterpieces: In Memoriam: Dylan Thomas, Vom Himmel
hoch, Agon, The Flood, Abraham and Isaac, Variations, Introitus,
and Requiem Canticles. Craft's historic association with Igor Stravinsky,
as his constant companion, co-conductor, and musical confidant, over a period
of more than twenty years, contributed to his understanding of the composer's
intentions in the performance of his music. He remains the primary source for
our perspectives on Stravinsky's life and work.
In addition to his special command of Stravinsky's and Schoenberg's music,
Robert Craft is well known for his recordings of works by Monteverdi, Gesualdo,
Schütz, Bach, and Mozart. He is also the author of more than two dozen
books on music and the arts, including the highly acclaimed Stravinsky:
Chronicle of a Friendship; The Moment of Existence: Music, Literature and
the Arts, 1990-1995; Places: A Travel Companion for Music and Art Lovers; An
Improbable Life: Memoirs; Memories and Commentaries; and the forthcoming Down
a Path of Wonder: On Schoenberg, Webern, Stravinsky, Eliot, Auden, and Some
Others (2005). He lives in Florida and New York.
Robert Craft on Stephen Walsh's Stravinsky: The Second Exile
