Natasha's Dance полностью

twig, a leaf, a blade of wheat, an acorn, some moss, and other souvenirs of the Russian earth' which the young American did 'not greatly need at that moment'. For these two women a lifelong dream was coming true. Craft compared the atmosphere to a child's birthday party: 'everyone, not least I.S. [Stravinsky] himself, is bursting with relief '.¹⁴²

The trip released a huge outpouring of emotion in Stravinsky. In the fifteen years that Robert Craft had known him he had never realized how important Russia was to the composer, or how much of it was still inside his heart. 'Only two days ago, in Paris, I would have denied that I.S… could ever be at home here again… Now I see that half a century of expatriation can be, whether or not it has been, forgotten in a night.'¹⁴³ It was not to the Soviet Union that Stravinsky had returned, but to Russia. When Khrennikov, the head of the Soviet Composers' Union, met him at the airport, Stravinsky refused to shake hands with the old Stalinist and offered him his walking stick instead.¹⁴⁴ The next day, the Stravinskys drove with Craft to the Sparrow Hills, from where Napoleon had first surveyed Moscow, and as they looked down on the city, they were, Craft thought, 'silent and more moved than I have ever seen them'.¹⁴⁵ At the Novodeviche monastery the Stravinskys were visibly 'disturbed not for any religious or political reason but simply because the Novodeviche is the Russia that they knew, the Russia that is still a part of them'. Behind the ancient walls of the monastery was an island of old Russia. In the gardens women in black kerchiefs and worn-out coats and shoes were tending the graves, and in the church a priest was leading a service where, as it seemed to Craft, the 'more fervent members [of the congregation] lie kow-tow, in the totally prostrate position that I.S. used to assume during his own devotions in the Russian Church in Hollywood'.¹⁴⁶ Despite all the turmoil that the Soviet Union had gone through, there were still some Russian customs that remained unchanged.

The same was true of the musical tradition, as Robert Craft found out when he rehearsed the Moscow National Orchestra in the Tchaikovsky Hall of the Conservatory for a performance of The Rite of Spring.

The orchestral ensemble is good, quick to adopt my alien demands of phrasing and articulation, and harder working than European orchestras in general.

The Sacre, played with an emotion I can describe only as non-Gallic and un-Teutonic, is an entirely different piece. The sound does not glitter as it does with American orchestras, and it is less loud, though still deafening in this very live room… This sobriety is very much to I.S.'s taste… Another satisfying oddity is the bass drum, which is open on one side as if sawed in two; the clear, secco articulation from the single head makes the beginning of Danse de la terre sound like the stampede I.S. says he had in mind… I.S. notes that the bassoon timbre is different than in America, and that 'The five fagiotti at the end of the Evocation des ancetres sound like the cinq vieillards I had imagined.'¹⁴⁷

Stravinsky took delight in this distinct orchestral sound. It brought his Russian ballets back to life.

He also rejoiced in his rediscovery of spoken Russian. From the moment he arrived back on Russian soil he slipped easily into modes of speech and conversation, using terms and phrases, even long-forgotten childhood expressions, he had not employed for over fifty years. When he spoke in Russian, he had always seemed to Craft 'a different person'; but now, 'speaking it with musicians who call him "Igor Fedorovich" which quickly established that family feeling peculiar to Russians - he is more buoyant than I can remember him'.¹⁴⁸ Craft was struck by the transformation in Stravinsky's character. Asked whether he believed that he was now seeing 'the true Stravinsky', the American replied that 'all I.S.s are true enough… but my picture of him is finally being given its background, which does wash out a great deal of what I had supposed to be "traits of character" or personal idiosyncrasies'.¹⁴⁹ Craft wrote that, as a result of the visit to Russia, his ear became attuned to the Russian elements of Stravinsky's music during the post-Russia years. The Russianness of Stravinsky's later compositions is not immediately obvious. But it is there - in the rhythmic energy and the chant-like melodies. From the Symphony of Psalms to the Requiem (1966) his musical language retains a Russian core.¹⁵⁰ As he himself explained to the Soviet press:

I have spoken Russian all my life, I think in Russian, my way of expressing myself is Russian. Perhaps it may not be noticeable in my music on a first hearing, but it is inherent in my music and part of its hidden character.¹⁵¹