Talking with Stravinsky

The last time I saw Stravinsky, in Oxford after a memorable performance of the Symphony of Psalms, I went backstage, and he happened to take my arm (because no one else was available!) so that he could descend the stairs to the stage door where hundreds of admirers awaited him. With his basso-profundo, thickly Russian-accented English, he said: "Up to heaven, down to hell." Again, tongue-in-cheek, he revealed a childlike but profound truth.
Time passed, and I moved away from the influence and the colossal impact that Stravinsky had on me. It is only recently, more than 40 years on, that I have re-immersed myself in his work, but in a totally different and more contemplative way.
I write this tribute now to Stravinsky, surrounded by metaphysical axioms and criteria according to all religious traditions, and my estimation of his greatness is determined entirely by them. I want to try to understand

Now find out who, in my header photo, is Walking with Stravinsky
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Comments
Stravinsky himself could not equate music with metaphysics, but this was a personal defect in a man who did not understand the true nature of objectivity
What cheek! "Personal defect"? What a shock it must be to Tavener that not all people look at the world as he does.
It might be argued that the great masters Schoenberg and Berg belonged more to the outward and therefore hellish realm
Oh please do fuck off, Tavener.
Stravinsky and Webern belonged more to the inward dimension, because they were able to bestow a certain kind of beauty and spirituality on Schoenberg's 12-tone system, which by its very nature is opposed to the celestial and ascending path
[rolls eyes 'til they almost pop out of head] Bloody New Age hippie.
But when his music does not satisfy the necessary metaphysical demands he can be brutal, dissonant and ugly
"Necessary"? To whom? By what criteria? John "Lord Is My Music Boring" Tavener?
But Stravinsky's modernism barred him from this blissful essential feminine theandric mystery. Had he truly fully embraced the archetype then there would be no more need for anyone to write music!
[groans intensely] Hyperbole much?
By doing this, by actually recomposing all of these musics, according to the music of his own soul, he was able, at times throughout his life, to set himself free to be able to leave the closed system of the individuality through participation in the one and universal selfhood
Or: we are born utterly alone, live our lives alone and die utterly alone. Silly wet-headed prat.
I know there's some people in the "let's make classical music more popular" crowd who bitch and moan about program notes that are given out at operas/concerts --they're too complicated, too technical, too "elitist"-- but give me that over John Tavener's presumption any day.
I knew there was a reason I find his music tedious and soporific, this article is a perfect example why.
Looks like Tuesday or Wednesday next week as I have some other articles to upload in the meantime - can you wait until then?
The problem, for me, is that Tavener is a classic case of someone whose attitude speaks so loudly that it is difficult to hear what he is actually saying.
Which is a pity, because he certainly has some things worth saying in his music.