This is the first Toccata Press publication to come my way - a superbly produced
book of real substance at this price: how do they do it? In content it is
a 50/50 job: half, intellectual, Keller; the other half, his visually perceptive
wife. Stravinsky 'seen' consists of drawings done at BBC rehearsals from
1958-61 (including some of Cocteau as Speaker in Oedipus Rex), topped and
tailed by two splendid etchings of the composer. A pleasure to look at, they
bring another dimension to bear on the attempt to understand this enigmatic
figure.
Hans Keller's main interest, as might be guessed, is with Stravinsky's
'conversion' to serialism. This he partly attributes to a psychological
role-playing after the death of Schonberg; but he also notes the use of basic
serial techniques in the 1930 masterpiece, Symphony of Psalms. Keller
writes eloquently here of Stravinsky's 'suppressionist' rather than
'expressionist' tendencies.
There is a clear and comprehensive note row analysis of the Dylan Thomas
song setting "Do not go gentle into that good night", which has sent
me scurrying to the CD catalogue. Such is the compelling power of Keller's
writing.
Some lines of thinking may leave the general reader rather cold e.g., "apart
from Stravinsky himself, Webern is the only great sado-masochistic figure
in the history of music": but others provoke deep reflection - "Stravinsky
is, of course, our age's conservative genius par excellence". Well, perhaps,
in one sense, yes.
If the prose can at times seem somewhat indigestible there is much food for
thought here. I see myself returning to the book often, and with profit.
Warmly recommended.
Reviewer
Andrew Seivewright
Published by Toccata
Press ISBN 0 907689 02 7£2.95
