Catherine and Igor Stravinsky: A Family Album

Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd. Good/Fair. 1973. First Edition. Hard Cover. 4to 0851620086 Dust jacket rubbed and worn, repairs, water damage. Black cloth with bright gilt titling on spine and upper cover, soiled. No ownership marks. Numerous photographs. 124 pages clean and tight. As the eldest son of Igor and Catherine Stravinsky I did not easily reach the decision to sink myself into memories of my childhood and to open the albums in which hundreds of unpublished photographs were lying; to publish in short illustrated passages of narrative the picture of Igor Stravinsky the man, as he appeared to his own family. These pages have no other ambition than to make known the still unfamiliar human, intimate aspect over against that of the `sacred monster' already discussed, and no doubt to be discussed in the future, by countless writers of authority. The memories which form the thread of these narratives, and some seventy-five photographs which accompany them, will perhaps amuse admirers of the composer and show our astonishing nomadic way of life during all my childhood. Igor Stravinsky can be seen as husband, father and friend; and this first-hand evidence will suggest, I hope, the extraordinary setting in which the composer wrote important works, from The Firebird to Pulcinella and including The Rite of Spring. .