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"This musical autobiography is one of those rich finds that give double satisfaction. For the reader there is that very special pleasure that intimate acquaintance with the famous will bring, in this case the great names of contemporary music and ballet. And it gives the publisher satisfaction to bring out a book which in years to come still will be a source of firsthand information about a period of tremendous intellectual excitement and artistic experimentation. It details the legendary brilliance of the days when Picasso, Stravinsky, Karsavina, Cocteau, Balanchine, Prokofiev and others all worked together under the flamboyant direction of the great Diaghilev. The portraits of Stravinsky and Prokofiev are perhaps the most illuminating nontechnical evaluations yet written about these composers, their lives and their music, while the chapter on Koussevitzky is informed with affection and understanding. Nicolas Nabokov's recollections of his childhood in Byelorussia and St. Petersburg are almost from the first memories of music: the "calling songs" of the lumberjacks floating down the Niemen, the shrill gay songs of the peasant women on their way to the hayfields and the lingering melodies they sang when returning, the minstrel songs of old man Troshka. Born into a wealthy Russian family in the early years of the twentieth century, young Nabokov was particularly well-placed to indulge his love for music. Affectionately he describes his first memorable performance of Glinka's A Life for the Tzar at the sumptuous Mariynski Theater and talks of the music making which went on in his family. After the Revolution, the aspiring composer found himself in Paris, then the cultural capital of the Western World. It is at this point in his autobiography that Mr. Nabokov cheerfully yields the center of the stage to the magnificent Diaghilev, the impresario of impresarios who exerted so great an influence on the music, art, and theater of his day. Much has been written about his personality - most of it laudatory, some of it critical - but rarely has the writer been a man of Nabokov's keen observation and careful judgment. His account of the Diaghilev he knew and of the various toilers in the Diaghilev Ballet Company (which produced his own Ode) is fascinating reading. Here is a poignant description of the mad Nijinsky's excursion to see Lifar perform. Nabokov's long friendship with Stravinsky has provided new material for a stimulating study of this great composer and his music, and the author's account of visit with Igor Stravinsky in his California home is both delightful and instructive. Since the early '30s, Nabokov has bene writing and teaching in America. New compositions of his have been commissioned by the Koussevitzky foundation and have been played by the Boston Symphony, the Philharmonic in New York and other leading American orchestras. He has become an American citizen and during the war served as a "cultural" officer attached to the army. His particular concern was the musical life of Berlin after the surrender and his experiences there attempting to cooperate with the Russians close this absorbing memoir."--Dust jacket.
Grace begins to feel left out when her best friend, Laura, gets a part in the school play and spends all her time rehearsing with a new friend.
Old and New Friends is a timeless story about always looking to Jesus even in the midst of uncertainty and suffering. It describes the friends we have in life and how they might change over time. As we journey through life's struggles and loss, an old friend, such as Happiness, might be replaced by a new friend, like Grief. No matter where life takes us or the circumstances we find ourselves in, we can always count on our oldest, most faithful friend, Love.
The story of the summer home of the Boston Symphony since 1935 is told in first-person accounts by many of the leading musicians, critics, and music professionals who consider Tanglewood a second home, with contributions by Boris Goldovsky, Seiji Ozawa, and James Levine, among others.
Will their new-found freedom come at a price? It’s 1970 and Debbie Hargreaves is heading to college in Leeds, where she’ll be sharing with three girls she’s never met before. Although they’re all from very different backgrounds, Debbie soon becomes firm friends with shy Lisa, outspoken Karen and cool, self-assured Fran. At the same time, Fiona is struggling to cope with four young children and her duties as a rector’s wife. The arrival of a new childminder should be the answer to her prayers, but Glenda’s open flirting with Fiona’s husband soon sets tongues wagging. Is Fiona’s marriage really under threat? Debbie loves her newfound independence and the male attention she attracts, but in enjoying her new freedom is she neglecting her family and friends, and forgetting her roots? A charming saga of family and friendship, perfect for fans of Margaret Dickinson and Rosie Harris.
The story of Nicolas Nabokov's involvement with the CIA-funded Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) is a story of the politics and sociology of culture; how music was used for political ends and how intellectual groups formed and functioned during the Cold War. The seemingly independent CCF, established to counteract apparent Soviet successes in the fields of the arts and intellectual life, appointed Nabokov (a Russian emigre and minor composer) as its Secretary General in 1951.Over the next ten years he gave music a high profile in the work of the organisation, producing four international musical festivals, the first and most ambitious of which was 1952's L'Oeuvre du XXe siècle in Paris, an event which showcased the work of no less than 62 composers. As Ian Wellens reveals, Nabokov's musical involvement with the CCF was in fact a struggle on two fronts.Apparently a defence of Western modernism against 'backward', 'provincial' Soviet music, Nabokov's writings show this to have meshed closely with the domestic concern- shared by many intellectuals -that high culture was being undermined by an increasingly culturally aware middle class. His attacks on Soviet cultural policy, and his unflattering assessments of Shostakovich, are seen to be not merely salvos in the cold war but part of a broader campaign aimed at securing the authority and prestige of intellectuals.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, LOS ANGELES TIMES, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY For more than four hundred years, the art of ballet has stood at the center of Western civilization. Its traditions serve as a record of our past. Lavishly illustrated and beautifully told, Apollo’s Angels—the first cultural history of ballet ever written—is a groundbreaking work. From ballet’s origins in the Renaissance and the codification of its basic steps and positions under France’s Louis XIV (himself an avid dancer), the art form wound its way through the courts of Europe, from Paris and Milan to Vienna and St. Petersburg. In the twentieth century, émigré dancers taught their art to a generation in the United States and in Western Europe, setting off a new and radical transformation of dance. Jennifer Homans, a historian, critic, and former professional ballerina, wields a knowledge of dance born of dedicated practice. Her admiration and love for the ballet, as Entertainment Weekly notes, brings “a dancer’s grace and sure-footed agility to the page.”