CRAFT, ROBERT

Robert Craft, the noted conductor and widely respected writer and critic on music, literature, and culture, holds a unique place in world music of today. He is in the process of recording the complete works of Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Webern for Naxos. He has twice won the Grand Prix du Disque as well as the Edison Prize for his landmark recordings of Schoenberg, Webern, and Varèse. He has also received a special award from the American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters in recognition of his "creative work" in literature. In 2002 he was awarded the International Prix du Disque Lifetime Achievement Award, Cannes Music Festival.

Robert Craft has conducted and recorded with most of the world's major orchestras in the United States, Europe, Russia, Japan, Korea, Mexico, South America, Australia, and New Zealand. He is the first American to have conducted Berg's Wozzeck and Lulu, and his original Webern album enabled music lovers to become acquainted with this composer's then little-known music. He led the world premières of Stravinsky's later masterpieces: In Memoriam: Dylan Thomas, Vom Himmel hoch, Agon, The Flood, Abraham and Isaac, Variations, Introitus, and Requiem Canticles. Craft's historic association with Igor Stravinsky, as his constant companion, co-conductor, and musical confidant, over a period of more than twenty years, contributed to his understanding of the composer's intentions in the performance of his music. He remains the primary source for our perspectives on Stravinsky's life and work.

In addition to his special command of Stravinsky's and Schoenberg's music, Robert Craft is well known for his recordings of works by Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Schütz, Bach, and Mozart. He is also the author of more than two dozen books on music and the arts, including the highly acclaimed Stravinsky: Chronicle of a Friendship; The Moment of Existence: Music, Literature and the Arts, 1990-1995; Places: A Travel Companion for Music and Art Lovers; An Improbable Life: Memoirs; Memories and Commentaries; and the forthcoming Down a Path of Wonder: On Schoenberg, Webern, Stravinsky, Eliot, Auden, and Some Others (2005). He lives in Florida and New York.

Robert Craft on Stephen Walsh's Stravinsky: The Second Exile

Albums featuring this artist are available for download from ClassicsOnline.com
AVE MARIA - Les plus beaux Ave Maria et chants a la Vierge (The Most Beautiful Ave Marias and Songs to the Virgin)	8.570886-87
DISCOVER CHAMBER MUSIC	8.558206-07
Discover Music of the Twentieth Century	8.558168-69
DISCOVER OPERA	8.558196-97
SCHOENBERG, A.: Pelleas und Melisande / Erwartung (Craft) (Schoenberg, Vol. 9)	8.557527
SCHOENBERG, A.: Violin Concerto / Ode to Napoleon / A Survivor from Warsaw (Craft) (Schoenberg, Vol. 10)	8.557528
SCHOENBERG: 5 Orchestral Pieces / BRAHMS: Piano Quartet No. 1 (orch. Schoenberg)(Schoenberg, Vol. 5)	8.557524
SCHOENBERG: 6 A Cappella Choruses / String Quartet No. 2 / Suite in G major (Schoenberg, Vol. 3)	8.557521
SCHOENBERG: 6 Orchestral Songs / Kol Nidre / Friede auf Erden (Schoenberg, Vol. 7)	8.557525
SCHOENBERG: Chamber Symphony No. 2 / Die gluckliche Hand / Wind Quintet (Schoenberg, Vol. 8)	8.557526
SCHOENBERG: Concerto for String Quartet / The Book of the Hanging Gardens (Schoenberg, Vol. 2)	8.557520
SCHOENBERG: Gurre-Lieder (Schoenberg, Vol. 1)	8.557518-19
SCHOENBERG: Pierrot Lunaire / Chamber Symphony No. 1 / 4 Orchestral Songs (Schoenberg, Vol. 6)	8.557523
SCHOENBERG: Serenade / Variations for Orchestra / Bach Orchestrations (Schoenberg, Vol. 4)	8.557522
STRAVINSKY: 125th Anniversary Album - The Rite of Spring / Violin Concerto (Stravinsky, Vol. 8)	8.557508
STRAVINSKY: Apollo / Agon / Orpheus (Stravinsky, Vol. 4)	8.557502
STRAVINSKY: Firebird (The) / Petrushka	6.110081
STRAVINSKY: Firebird (The) / Petrushka (Stravinsky, Vol. 2)	8.557500
STRAVINSKY: Histoire du Soldat Suite / Renard (Stravinsky, Vol. 7)	8.557505
STRAVINSKY: Igor Stravinsky - A Portrait (NICE)	8.558186-87
STRAVINSKY: Later Ballets (Stravinsky, Vol. 9)	8.557506
STRAVINSKY: Mass / Cantata / Symphony of Psalms (Stravinsky, Vol. 6)	8.557504
STRAVINSKY: Oedipus Rex / Les Noces (Stravinsky, Vol. 1)	8.557499
STRAVINSKY: Pulcinella / Le baiser de la fee (The Fairy's Kiss) (Stravinsky, Vol. 5)	8.557503
STRAVINSKY: Rite of Spring (The) / The Nightingale (Stravinsky, Vol. 3)	8.557501
WEBERN: Symphony, Op. 21 / Six Pieces, Op. 6 / Concerto for Nine Instruments, Op. 24	8.557530