An Improbable Life: Memoirs » (1ST)

Robert Craft is the recipient of the 2002 International Prix du Disque Lifetime Achievement Award, Cannes Music Festival. He has conducted and recorded with the major orchestras in this country and abroad. In addition to his special command of Stravinsky's music, Craft is well known for his recordings of works by Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Schutz, Bach, Mozart, Berg, Schoenberg, and Varese.

In 1948, Robert Craft would begin a unique friendship with Stravinsky that would last until the composer's death in 1971. This book tells the story of his "improbable life" before, during, and after his long collaboration with Stravinsky and residence in the Stravinsky household.

The Los Angeles Times

Craft's talent to be revelatory and obfuscatory at the same time makes his peculiar memoir, An Improbable Life, as infuriating as it is engrossing. — Mark Swed

Part I: Growing Up
Chapter 1: A Sense of Self
Chapter 2: Prep School
Chapter 3: Juilliard, the War, Tanglewood

Part II: The Stravinsky Years
Chapter 4: "Dear Bobsky"
Chapter 5: Wetherly Drive Regulars
Chapter 6: The 1950s
Chapter 7: Isaiah Berlin and Stravinsky's Abraham and Isaac
Chapter 8: The 1960s

Part III: Surviving the Legacy
Chapter 9: Confrontations: The 1970s
Chapter 10: Three Deaths and a New Life: The 1980s
Chapter 11: My Return to Music: The 1990s
Chapter 12: Not Going Gently

Index