"WITH LOVE AND KISSES FROM I STRAVINSKY"

STRAVINSKY, Igor. CRAFT, Robert. Expositions and Developments. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1962. Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. $2500.

First edition, warmly inscribed on the half title to neighbor and longtime friend Miranda Levy, "To my dear Miranda, with love and kisses from I Stravinsky, Nov /63."

"Few 20th-century composers enjoyed international influence and importance equal to that of Stravinsky. This influence exists in the materials of his music and in his rigorous search for an individual sound… For many years he was, with Schoenberg, one of the two unofficial poles of Western music" (ANB). In these conversations with his protégé, conductor Robert Craft (who coauthored seven books with him), Stravinsky discusses his childhood in St. Petersburg, Russia; recalls such musical luminaries as Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov; reflects on the intersection of music and modern recording technology; and discusses scores including The Firebird, The Rite of Spring and his then-new work, The Flood. Illustrated with eight pages of black-and-white photographs. Inscribed to Miranda Levy, a founding member of the Santa Fe Opera and wife of pioneering television director Ralph Levy (whose credits include directing the original I Love Lucy pilot episode). Miranda "met Stravinsky at the Aspen, Colorado Music Festival in 1950, then hosted him on a New Mexico visit… [When] the composer let it be known he was interested in D.H. Lawrence… [Miranda] introduced Stravinsky to Lawrence's widow… [Miranda and Ralph Levy] moved to Los Angeles and bought a house less than a block from Stravinsky's… Just as she had once kept Santa Feans up to date on the latest news and gossip, she now regaled Igor and Vera Stravinsky with daily updates on movie studio gossip" (Albuquerque Journal).

Dust jacket with light rubbing to spine ends and edges. A very nearly fine inscribed presentation/association copy.