Vzpomínky na Igora Stravinského – Ramuz Charles Ferdinand (2026)

Charles Ferdinand Ramuz (1878–1947), one of the most important Swiss French-language writers, writes his recollections of the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) years after their meeting, in 1929. They meet in 1915 in the canton of Vaud on Lake Geneva, where Stravinsky seeks refuge from the turmoil of war. It is a meeting between two innovative creators who understand each other so deeply as people and artists that their remarkable five-year friendship also leads to collaboration on several music-theatre works, including the burlesque opera-ballets The Fox, The Wedding and, above all, The Soldier’s Tale. In an intimate tone that often makes the composer feel vividly present, Ramuz highlights qualities in Stravinsky toward which he himself also strives: authenticity, a poetry of the earth, the elemental nature of things, the living world and love for it, and the appearance, taste and scent of his subjects. In some passages, the recollections become an essay on truthfulness in art, the artist and the traits of personality; elsewhere they turn to people and their work, and to the landscapes through which Ramuz and Stravinsky often walk together around the lake and among the vineyards. Reflections on contemporary events, including the war and the Russian Revolution, are also present. For Ramuz, Stravinsky is a teacher of authenticity and instinctive directness. Through what seems like his enduring presence, the Swiss writer inscribes poetic images of reality and a celebration of nature, the land and its people into his recollections, describing as well the nature and manner of their collaboration on the individual works. The memoirs are a valuable source for understanding a particular stage of Stravinsky’s creative work and its context, but they offer an even more immediate testimony to his human personality. At the same time, they provide a compelling account of Ramuz’s artistic outlook and of the connection between the poetics of his prose and the character and vision of his native land. The book is in Czech.