Robert Craft

Robert Lawson Craft is an American conductor, noted for his association with <a href="spotify:artist:7ie36YytMoKtPiL7tUvmoE">Igor Stravinsky</a> and his championing of the music of <a href="spotify:artist:6cg7ooZDeSSLYVTWGpASjX">Anton Webern</a> and other composers of the Second Viennese School.

Craft had a middle-class upbringing in upstate New York. After service as an Army medic during World War II, he studied at Juilliard and Berkshire Music Center and privately with <a href="spotify:artist:5fL4LVKRLKkyN1Xalpt0xx">Pierre Monteux</a>. From 1947 to 1950 he conducted the Chamber Arts Society of New York, attracting attention for his adventurous programming.

His conducting led to a meeting with the 65-year-old <a href="spotify:artist:7ie36YytMoKtPiL7tUvmoE">Igor Stravinsky</a>, who hired him as musical assistant and secretary. Moving to <a href="spotify:artist:7ie36YytMoKtPiL7tUvmoE">Stravinsky</a>'s home in Los Angeles, Craft assisted him with the English text of the opera The Rake's Progress. Craft also conducted two concert series in Los Angeles, the Evenings-on-the-Roof and its successor, the Monday Evening Concerts. Again, he scheduled music of <a href="spotify:artist:5U827e4jbYz6EjtN0fIDt9">Schoenberg</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:6cg7ooZDeSSLYVTWGpASjX">Webern</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0enRaCZSvIUa2nVC7I4roi">Varèse</a>, late <a href="spotify:artist:7ie36YytMoKtPiL7tUvmoE">Stravinsky</a>, and older music such as that of <a href="spotify:artist:7wi1x9DxLtqnhzJIQa7JQF">Gesualdo</a>.

After the premiere of The Rake in 1951, <a href="spotify:artist:7ie36YytMoKtPiL7tUvmoE">Stravinsky</a> found himself creatively blocked, but also unexpectedly stimulated by hearing Craft's performance of <a href="spotify:artist:5U827e4jbYz6EjtN0fIDt9">Schoenberg</a>'s Septet. The Russian master (generally considered the greatest rival of <a href="spotify:artist:5U827e4jbYz6EjtN0fIDt9">Schoenberg</a> and his school) now asked Craft to provide some <a href="spotify:artist:5U827e4jbYz6EjtN0fIDt9">Schoenberg</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:6cg7ooZDeSSLYVTWGpASjX">Webern</a> scores for study. Craft also gave <a href="spotify:artist:7ie36YytMoKtPiL7tUvmoE">Stravinsky</a> <a href="spotify:artist:7ABfksc6hkcvh4mo8qzL5A">Ernst Krenek</a>'s invaluable teaching books on the 12-tone system. Over the next few years <a href="spotify:artist:7ie36YytMoKtPiL7tUvmoE">Stravinsky</a> startled the musical world by embracing <a href="spotify:artist:5U827e4jbYz6EjtN0fIDt9">Schoenberg</a>'s system. Craft's position with <a href="spotify:artist:7ie36YytMoKtPiL7tUvmoE">Stravinsky</a> altered from assistant to collaborator. The composer welcomed Craft's suggestions and advice even to the shaping of some of his late works. Craft also began rehearsing orchestras for <a href="spotify:artist:7ie36YytMoKtPiL7tUvmoE">Stravinsky</a> to conduct in concert and for a great series of recordings for Columbia Records, making both endeavors possible.

In connection with the composer's 75th birthday, Craft suggested that he and <a href="spotify:artist:7ie36YytMoKtPiL7tUvmoE">Stravinsky</a> prepare a written interview dealing with the most frequently asked questions and release it to the press rather than subject the old man to long, repetitive personal interviews. This format proved so successful that Craft and <a href="spotify:artist:7ie36YytMoKtPiL7tUvmoE">Stravinsky</a> co-wrote several volumes of <a href="spotify:artist:7ie36YytMoKtPiL7tUvmoE">Stravinsky</a>'s memoirs and thoughts on music. After <a href="spotify:artist:7ie36YytMoKtPiL7tUvmoE">Stravinsky</a>'s death, Craft continued to edit <a href="spotify:artist:7ie36YytMoKtPiL7tUvmoE">Stravinsky</a> documentation and write his own memories of life with <a href="spotify:artist:7ie36YytMoKtPiL7tUvmoE">Stravinsky</a>.

Craft has pursued his own career as a lecturer, conductor, writer, and musicologist. While recording the Columbia <a href="spotify:artist:7ie36YytMoKtPiL7tUvmoE">Stravinsky</a> cycle, he used odd moments available during studio sessions to produce the first integral recordings of the complete numbered works of <a href="spotify:artist:6cg7ooZDeSSLYVTWGpASjX">Anton Webern</a>. The turn of the 21st century found him recording the works of <a href="spotify:artist:7ie36YytMoKtPiL7tUvmoE">Stravinsky</a> and of <a href="spotify:artist:5U827e4jbYz6EjtN0fIDt9">Schoenberg</a> for Koch International Classics, which were subsequently licensed for reissue on Naxos.

He is a highly skilled and precise conductor who could no doubt have established a career of higher profile if he were more interested in the standard repertory and if he had not devoted much of his time to <a href="spotify:artist:7ie36YytMoKtPiL7tUvmoE">Stravinsky</a>, both during and after the master's life. But he has gone firmly on record as saying the opportunity to know and work with the great man was, without doubt on his part, fully worth the trade-off.