Black And Blue - Music

André George Previn Andreas Ludwig Priwin April 6 1929 – February 28 2019 Was A German-American Pianist Conductor And Composer. Previn Won Four Academy Awards For His Film Work And Ten Grammy Awards For His Recordings And One More For His Lifetime Achievement. Previn Was Born In Berlin Germany The Son Of Charlotte Née Epstein And Jack Previn Jakob Priwin Who Was A Lawyer Judge And Music Teacher. He Is Said To Have Been "a Distant Relative Of" The Composer Gustav Mahler. However In A Pre-Concert Public Interview At Lincoln Center In May 2012 Previn Laughed At The Suggestion That He Was Related To Mahler. The Year Of His Birth Is Uncertain. Whereas Most Published Reports Give 1929 Previn Himself Stated That 1930 Was His Birth Year. In 1938 His Jewish Family Left Berlin To Live In Paris But Moved To Los Angeles After A Year Or So. His Great-Uncle Charles Previn Was Music Director For Universal. André Grew Up In Los Angeles And Became A Naturalized Citizen Of The United States In 1943. At Previn's 1946 Graduation From Beverly Hills High School He Played A Musical Duet With Richard M. Sherman Previn Played The Piano Accompanying Sherman Who Played Flute . Coincidentally Both Composers Won 1964 Oscars For Different Films Both Winning In Musical Categories. In 1951 And 1952 While Stationed At The Presidio Of San Francisco During His Military Service Previn Took Private Conducting Lessons From Pierre Monteux Which He Valued Highly. Previn Came To Prominence By Arranging And Composing Hollywood Film Scores First Working For MGM When He Was Still In High School In 1946 Having Been Noticed By The Studio's Music Department For His Work With A Local Radio Program. 8 The Film Studios He Said In 2005 "were Always Looking For Somebody Who Was Talented Fast And Cheap And Because I Was A Kid I Was All Three. So They Hired Me To Do Piecework And I Evidently Did It Very Well." At 18 He Became A Composer-Conductor For The Studio. His First Official Credit Was For An Entry In The Lassie Series The Sun Comes Up 1949 Which Much Later He Thought Was "the Most Inept Score You Ever Heard" After Seeing A Television Rerun. Previn Remained With MGM For A Decade And A Half But Resigned In His Early 30s. He Told Emma Brockes Of The Guardian In 2008 "At MGM You Knew You Were Going To Be Working Next Year You Knew You Were Going To Get Paid. But I Was Too Ambitious Musically To Settle For It. And I Wanted To Gamble With Whatever Talent I Might Have Had." His Break With The Film World In The 1960s Was Not As Straightforward As He Often Tried To Claim In Later Life. His Film Work Continued Until Rollerball 1975 . Over His Entire Film Career Previn Was Involved In The Music For Over 50 Movies As Composer Conductor Or Performer. In 1967 Previn Succeeded Sir John Barbirolli As Music Director Of The Houston Symphony Orchestra. In 1968 He Began His Tenure As Principal Conductor Of The London Symphony Orchestra LSO Serving In That Post Until 1979. During His LSO Tenure He And The LSO Appeared On The BBC Television Programme André Previn's Music Night. However During His Period With The LSO According To The Music Critic Martin Bernheimer Previn Gained The Reputation Of Being "a First-Rate Conductor Of Second-Rate Music." From 1976 To 1984 He Was Music Director Of The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra PSO And In Turn Had Another Television Series With The PSO Entitled Previn And The Pittsburgh. He Was Also Principal Conductor Of The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra From 1985 To 1988. In 1985 He Became Music Director Of The Los Angeles Philharmonic. Although Previn's Tenure With The Orchestra Was Deemed Satisfactory From A Professional Perspective Other Conductors Including Kurt Sanderling Simon Rattle And Esa-Pekka Salonen Did A Better Job At Selling Out Concerts. Previn Clashed Frequently With Ernest Fleischmann The LAPO's Executive VP And General Manager Including The Dispute When Fleischmann Failed To Consult Previn Before Naming Salonen As Principal Guest Conductor Of The Orchestra Complete With A Tour Of Japan. As A Result Of Previn's Objections Salonen's Title And Japanese Tour Were Withdrawn However Shortly Thereafter In April 1989 Previn Resigned. Four Months Later Salonen Was Named Music Director Designate Of The Los Angeles Philharmonic Officially Taking The Post Of Music Director In October 1992. Previn Also Enjoyed A Long Relationship With The Medium Of Television Featuring In Meet André Previn 1969 On London Weekend Television The Morecambe And Wise Christmas Show In 1971 And 1972 BBC André Previn's Music Night Conducting The London Symphony Orchestra—three Programmes In 1973 Others In 1975 And 1976 Television Interviews With Other Artists Appearances On Call My Bluff And Participation In Documentaries About Popular Music And Jazz During The 1970s And 1980s. Previn Became Known To A Broad Public Through His Television Work. In The United Kingdom He Worked On TV With The London Symphony Orchestra. In The U.S. The Television Program "Previn And The Pittsburgh" 1977 Featured Him In Collaboration With The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Previn Is Particularly Remembered In Britain For His Performance As "Mr. Andrew Preview" Or "Privet" On The Morecambe And Wise Christmas Show In 1971 Which Involved His Conducting A Performance Of Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto With Eric Morecambe As The Comically Inept Soloist Being Swindled Into It By Being Told That Yehudi Menuhin Would Be His Solo Violinist . "Preview" Then Remarks That "I'll Go Fetch My Baton. It's In Chicago." This Comic Ad-Lib Made Morecambe Immediately Realise The Sketch Would Be A Success. 16 Later In The Sketch "Mr Preview" Accuses Morecambe Of Playing All The Wrong Notes Morecambe Retorts That He Has Been Playing "all The Right Notes But Not Necessarily In The Right Order". Because Of Other Commitments The Only Time Available For Previn To Learn His Part In The Show Was During A Transatlantic Flight But The Talent He Showed For Comedy Won High Praise From His Co-Performers. He Made A Second Appearance In Their Eighth Series. In The Sketch He Is Tricked Into Visiting The Pair Again And They Suggest That If He Works With Them Again He Could Receive A Knighthood. He Conducted A 1920s-Style Dance Band As The Pair Sang Then Joined Them At The End Of The Episode In Singing Bring Me Sunshine. Previn Also Appeared In The 1972 Christmas Show Bemoaning The Apparent Consequences Of His 1971 Appearance The Only Conducting Work He Now Gets Is On A London Bus. At A Concert He Conducted With The Grieg Concerto Included In The Program In Britain Previn Had To Pause The Playing To Allow The Audience Time To Stop Giggling As They Remembered The Sketch. Previn Himself Recalled In 2005 That People In Britain Still Recall The Sketch Years Later "Taxi Drivers Still Call Me Mr Preview". Previn Was Married Five Times. His First Marriage In 1952 Was To Jazz Singer Betty Bennett With Whom He Had Two Daughters Claudia Previn 18 Stasny And Alicia Previn A Violinist For The Irish Band In Tua Nua And A Founding Member Of The Young Dubliners . Previn Divorced Bennett In 1957 A Few Months Before She Gave Birth To Alicia. In 1959 He Married Dory Langan. A Singer-Songwriter Dory Became Widely Known As A Lyricist With Whom Previn Collaborated On Several Academy Award-Nominated Film Scores During Their Marriage. After Previn Divorced Her In 1969 During Her Hospitalization For A Mental Breakdown And After Previn Was Caught Having An Affair With 23 Year Old Mia Farrow Dory Resumed Her Career As A Singer-Songwriter With On My Way To Where 1970 A Critically Acclaimed Album Whose Confessional Lyrics Were Described As "searingly Honest" And Chronicled Both Her Mental Health Struggles And The Infidelity That She Alleged Had At Once Precipitated The End Of Her Marriage To Previn And Exacerbated Her Intermittent Mental Illness. In 2013 Jazz Singer Kate Dimbleby And Pianist Naadia Sheriff Revisited Dory Previn's Musical Reflections On Her Marriage To André Previn In The London Cabaret Show Beware Of Young Girls The Dory Previn Story. Previn's Third Marriage In 1970 Was To Mia Farrow. Before Their Divorce In 1979 Previn And Farrow Had Three Biological Children Together—twins Matthew And Sascha Born In 1970 And Fletcher Born In 1974. They Then Adopted Vietnamese Infants Lark Song And Summer "Daisy" Song Born October 6 1974 Followed By Soon-Yi Previn A Korean Child Whose Age A Physician's Bone Scan Placed Between Six And Eight Years Old And Whose Unknown Birth Date Her Adoptive Parents Estimated As October 8 1970. Lark Died On Christmas Day 2008. In The Aftermath Of The Scandal Involving Soon-Yi And Mia Farrow's Partner Woody Allen Previn Said Of Soon-Yi "She Does Not Exist." Previn's Longest Marriage Was His Fourth. In January 1982 He Married Heather Sneddon. With Heather He Had Two Children Li-An Mary Adopted 1982 And Lukas Alexander Born 1983. Citation Needed Previn Wrote A Brief Memoir Of His Early Years In Hollywood No Minor Chords Which Was Published In 1991 Edited By Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis And Dedicated To Heather. This Marriage Ended In Divorce After 17 Years. His Fifth Marriage In 2002 Was To The German Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter For Whom In The Previous Year He Had Composed A Violin Concerto. They Announced Their Divorce In August 2006 But Continued To Work Together In Concerts Afterwards. Previn Died On February 28 2019 At Home In Manhattan At The Age Of 89. Recordings
Previn's Discography Contains Hundreds Of Recordings In Film Jazz Classical Music And Contemporary Classical Music. Because Of The Huge Number Of Recordings The Following Lists Are Necessarily Highly Selective. A Full Discography Including LP/CD Record Codes Is Available In Frédéric Döhl André Previn. Musikalische Vielseitigkeit Und Ästhetische Erfahrung Stuttgart 2012 Pp. 295–319. Film Music
Most Of The Films Which Incorporate Previn's Music Are Still Available As Videos/DVDs Or/and As Soundtrack Records. Some Of His Soundtracks Have Been Reissued In Recent Years Including Those From Elmer Gantry Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse Inside Daisy Clover And Dead Ringer. Jazz Recordings
Previn Made Dozens Of Jazz Recordings As Both A Leader And Sideman Primarily During Two Periods Of His Career From 1945 To 1967 And Then Again From 1989 To 2001 With Just A Handful Of Recordings In Between And Afterward While He Focused His Career On Conducting/recording Classical Music And Later On Composing Contemporary Art Music . Previn Also Did Several Crossover Recordings With Classical Singers Like Eileen Farrell Leontyne Price Or Kiri Te Kanawa Too As Well As Several Easy-Listening Records With Piano And Orchestra In The 1960s Beginning With Like Young. Secret Songs For Young Lovers 1959. With David Rose And His Orchestra . Like Oscar Peterson Whom Previn Admired A Great Deal And Bill Evans Previn Worked A Lot As A Trio Pianist Usually With Bass And Drums . Following His Performance On Shelly Manne's Recording Modern Jazz Performances Of Songs From My Fair Lady In 1956 Previn Released Several Albums Of Jazz Interpretations Of Songs From Broadway Musicals As Well As Several Solo Piano Recordings Focussed On The Songbooks Of Popular Composers André Previn Plays Songs By Vernon Duke 1958 André Previn Plays Songs By Harold Arlen 1960 Ballads. Solo Jazz Standards 1996 Alone Ballads For Solo Piano 2007 The Late Recording Of Songs By Harold Arlen With Singer Sylvia McNair And Bass Player David Finck Come Rain Or Shine. The Harold Arlen Songbook 1996 And His TV Shows With Oscar Peterson 1974 – Which Marlon Brando Simply Called "one Of The Greatest Hours I Ever Saw On Television" – And Ella Fitzgerald 1979 Respectively. Jazz Critic And Historian Ted Gioia Wrote In His Book About West Coast Jazz The Scene To Which Previn Belonged His Projects Varied Greatly In Terms Of Quality And Jazz Content But At His Best Previn Could Be A Persuasive Moving Jazz Musician. Despite His Deep Roots In Symphonic Music Previn Largely Steered Clear Of Third Stream Classicism In His Jazz Work Aiming More At An Earthy Hard-Swinging Piano Style At Times Reminiscent Of Horace Silver. Long Before His Eventual Retreat From His Jazz Work Previn Had Become Something Of A Popularizer Of Jazz Rather Than A Serious Practitioner Of The Music. At His Best However His Music Reflected A Strong Indigenous Feel For The Jazz Idiom. Dizzy Gillespie Stated He Has The Flow You Know Which A Lot Of Guys Don't Have And Won't Ever Get. Yeah. I Heard Him Play And I Knew. A Lot Of Guys They Have The Technique The Harmonic Sense. They've Got The Perfect Coordination. And Yeah All That's Necessary. But You Need Something More You Know? Even If You Only Make An Oooooooo Like That You Got To Have The Flow. Jazz Recordings As Leader/co-Leader André Previn Plays Harry Warren RCA Victor 1952 Collaboration RCA Victor 1955 – With Shorty Rogers
Let's Get Away From It All Decca 1955 Double Play! Contemporary 1957 With Russ Freeman
Pal Joey Contemporary 1957 Gigi Contemporary 1958 André Previn Plays Songs By Vernon Duke Contemporary 1958 Secret Songs For Young Lovers MGM Records 1958 With David Rose King Size! Contemporary 1959 André Previn Plays Songs By Jerome Kern Contemporary 1959 West Side Story Contemporary 1959 Like Blue MGM Records 1960 The Subterraneans Soundtrack MGM 1960 Like Previn! Contemporary 1960 André Previn Plays Songs By Harold Arlen Contemporary 1960 A Touch Of Elegance Columbia 1960 Like Love Columbia 1960 Thinking Of You Columbia 1961 The Previn Scene MGM Records 1961 Duet Columbia 1962 With Doris Day André Previn And J. J. Johnson Play Kurt Weill's Mack The Knife & Bilbao-Song Columbia 1962 With J.J. Johnson 4 To Go! Columbia 1963 With Herb Ellis Ray Brown And Shelly Manne
But Beautiful Decca 1963 Soft And Swinging The Music Of Jimmy McHugh Columbia 1964 Sound Stage! Columbia 1964 Love Walked In RCA Camden 1964 The Popular Previn Columbia 1965 André Previn Plays Music Of The Young Hollywood Composers RCA Victor 1965 Previn With Voices RCA Victor 1966 All Alone RCA Victor 1967 Right As The Rain RCA Victor 1967 With Leontyne Price The Easy Winners Angel Records 1975 With Itzhak Perlman A Different Kind Of Blues EMI/Angel 1980 With Itzhak Perlman It's A Breeze EMI/Angel 1981 With Itzhak Perlman Nice Work If You Can Get It 1983 With Ella Fitzgerald And Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen After Hours Telarc 1989 With Joe Pass And Ray Brown Uptown Telarc 1990 With Mundell Lowe And Ray Brown Old Friends Telarc 1992 With Mundell Lowe And Ray Brown Kiri Sidetracks The Jazz Album 1992 With Kiri Te Kanawa Mundell Lowe And Ray Brown What Headphones? Angel 1993 Sure Thing The Jerome Kern Songbook 1994 With Sylvia McNair And David Finck André Previn And Friends Play Show Boat Deutsche Grammophon 1995 With Mundell Lowe Ray Brown And Grady Tate Ballads Solo Jazz Standards Angel 1996 Come Rain Or Shine The Harold Arlen Songbook 1996 With Sylvia McNair And David Finck Jazz At The Musikverein Verve 1997 With Mundell Lowe And Ray Brown We Got Rhythm A Gershwin Songbook Deutsche Grammophon 1998 With David Finck We Got It Good And That Ain't Bad An Ellington Songbook Deutsche Grammophon 1999 With David Finck Live At The Jazz Standard Decca 2001 With David Finck Alone Ballads For Solo Piano Decca 2007 Jazz Recordings As Sideman/group Member With Buddy Bregman Swinging Kicks Verve 1957 With Benny Carter Jazz Giant Contemporary 1958 With Michael Feinstein Change Of Heart The Songs Of Andre Previn Telarc 2013 With Helen Humes Tain't Nobody's Biz-Ness If I Do Contemporary 1959 Songs I Like To Sing! Contemporary 1960 With Barney Kessel Music To Listen To Barney Kessel By Contemporary 1956 Carmen Contemporary 1959 65 With Shelly Manne Shelly Manne & His Friends Contemporary 1956 My Fair Lady Contemporary 1956 Li'l Abner Contemporary 1957 Bells Are Ringing Contemporary 1959 With The Mitchells Red Mitchell Whitey Mitchell And Blue Mitchell Get Those Elephants Out'a Here MetroJazz 1958 With Lyle Murphy 12-Tone Compositions And Arrangements By Lyle Murphy Contemporary 1955 With Pete Rugolo An Adventure In Sound Reeds In Hi-Fi Mercury 1956 1958 An Adventure In Sound Brass In Hi-Fi Mercury 1956 1958 Percussion At Work EmArcy 1957 Classical Music As Conductor Or Pianist – Selection Chamber Music / Solo Piano Music
As In Jazz Previn The Classical Pianist Worked Most Of The Time As A Trio Pianist With Violin And Cello In Classical Chamber Music. Accordingly Most Of His Recordings As Pianist Are In This Genre. Samuel Barber Four Excursions Paul Hindemith Piano Sonata No. 3 Frank Martin Prelude No. 7 1961 Gabriel Fauré Piano Trio In D Minor Op. 120 Felix Mendelssohn Piano Trio In D Minor Op. 49 1964 With Nathan Roth And Joseph Schuster Sergei Rachmaninoff Music For Two Pianos. Suite Nr. 1 Op. 5 Suite Nr. 2 Op. 17 Symphonic Dances Op. 45 1974 With Vladimir Ashkenazy Maurice Ravel Piano Trio In A Minor Dmitri Shostakovich Piano Trio No. 2 In E Minor Op. 67 1974 With Kim Young Uck And Ralph Kirshbaum Claude Debussy Piano Trio In G Major Maurice Ravel Piano Trio In A Minor 1995 With Julie Rosenfeld And Gary Hoffmann 'Ludwig Van Beethoven Piano Trio No. 7 In B-Flat Major Op. 97 Johannes Brahms Piano Trio In B Major Op. 8 1995 With Viktoria Mullova And Heinrich Schiff American Scenes. André Previn Sonata For Violin And Piano "Vineyard" George Gershwin Three Preludes Aaron Copland Sonata For Violin And Piano Nocturne Samuel Barber Canzone Elegy Op. 38a 1998 With Gil Shaham Orchestral Music / Concertos / Ballets
Previn's Recording Repertoire As A Conductor Is Focused On The Standards Of Classical And Romantic Music Excepting Opera In General Favoring The Symphonic Music Of Hector Berlioz Johannes Brahms And Richard Strauss And With A Special Emphasis On Violin And Piano Concertos And Ballets. Just A Few Of Previn's Recordings Deal With Music Before Joseph Haydn And Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Both Favourites Of Previn's Programmes Or Contemporary Avant-Garde Art Music Based On Atonality Minimalism Serialism Stochastic Music Etc. Instead In 20th-Century Music Previn's Repertoire Highlights Specific Composers Of Late Romanticism And Modernism Like Samuel Barber Benjamin Britten George Gershwin Erich Wolfgang Korngold Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Rachmaninoff Maurice Ravel Dmitri Shostakovich Richard Strauss Ralph Vaughan Williams Harold Shapero And William Walton. Previn Recorded Mostly For EMI Telarcno And Deutsche Grammophon. Contemporary Classical Music Recordings Of Previn's Own Compositions – Selection Guitar Concerto 1972 With John Williams And The London Symphony Orchestra Every Good Boy Deserves Favour 1978 With The London Symphony Orchestra Piano Concerto And Guitar Concerto 1990 With Vladimir Ashkenazy Eduardo Fernandez And The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Honey And Rue 1995 With Kathleen Battle And The Orchestra Of St. Luke's "From Ordinary Things" Sonata For Cello And Piano Four Songs For Soprano Cello And Piano Two Remembrances For Soprano Alto Flute And Piano Vocalise For Soprano Cello And Piano 1997 With Sylvia McNair Yo-Yo Ma And Sandra Church Trio For Piano Oboe And Bassoon 1997 With Cynthia Koledo De Almeida And Nancy Goeres "Music Of André Previn" Trio For Piano Oboe And Bassoon Peaches For Flute And Piano Triolet For Brass Variations On A Theme By Haydn For Piano A Wedding Waltz For Two Oboes And Piano 1998 With The St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble "American Scenes" Sonata For Violin And Piano "Vineyard" 1998 With Gil Shaham A Streetcar Named Desire 1998 With Renée Fleming Elizabeth Futral Rodney Gilfry Anthony Dean Griffey San Francisco Opera Orchestra "Diversions – Songs" Diversions Sallie Chisum Remembers Billy The Kid Vocalise The Giraffes Go To Hamburg Three Dickinson Songs 2001 With Renée Fleming Barbara Bonney Moray Welsh Vienna Philharmonic London Symphony Orchestra Tango Song And Dance 2003 Anne-Sophie Mutter Violin Concerto "Anne-Sophie" 2003 With Anne-Sophie Mutter And The Boston Symphony Orchestra Double Concerto For Violin Contrabass And Orchestra Piano Concerto Violin Concerto "Anne-Sophie" Three Dickinson Songs Diversions "I Can Smell The Sea Air" From A Streetcar Named Desire 2009 With Renée Fleming Anne-Sophie Mutter Vladimir Ashkenazy Roman Patkolo Boston Symphony Orchestra London Symphony Orchestra Vienna Philharmonic San Francisco Opera Orchestra Brief Encounter 2011 With Elizabeth Futral Nathan Gunn Kim Josephson Houston Grand Opera Orchestra Patrick Summers Awards And Recognitions
Previn Was Nominated For 11 Academy Awards. He Won Four Times In 1958 1959 1963 And 1964. He Is One Of Few Composers To Have Accomplished The Feat Of Winning Back-To-Back Oscars And One Of Only Two To Have Done So On Two Occasions The Other Being Alfred Newman . Previn Was The Only Person In The History Of The Academy Awards To Receive Three Nominations In One Year 1961 . In 1970 He Was Nominated For A Tony Award As Part Of Coco's Nomination For Best Musical. In 1977 He Became An Honorary Member Of The Royal Academy Of Music. The 1977 Television Show Previn And The Pittsburgh Was Nominated For Three Emmy Awards. Previn Was Appointed An Honorary Knight Commander Of The Order Of The British Empire In 1996. Not Being A Citizen Of A Commonwealth Realm He Was Permitted To Use The Post-Nominal Letters KBE But Was Not Called "Sir André". Previn Received The Kennedy Center Honors In 1998 In Recognition Of His Contributions To Classical Music And Opera In The United States. In 2005 He Was Awarded The International Glenn Gould Prize And In 2008 Won Gramophone Magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award For His Work In Classical Film And Jazz Music. 78 In 2010 The Recording Academy Honored Previn With A Lifetime Achievement Grammy. Academy Awards
Best Music – Scoring Of A Musical Picture
1958 Gigi
1959 Porgy & Bess
Best Score – Adaptation Or Treatment
1963 Irma La Douce
1964 My Fair Lady
Grammy Awards
Previn Received Grammy Awards And Nomination Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
2010 André Previn
Best Instrumental Soloist
2005 Previn Violin Concerto Bernstein Serenade For Solo Violin Strings Harp And Percussion
Best Classical Crossover Album
2003 Korngold The Sea Hawk Captain Blood With The London Symphony Orchestra
Best Chamber Music Performance
1999 American Scenes Copland Previn Barber Gershwin
Best Choral Performance
1974 William Walton Belshazzar's Feast With The London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
1977 Rachmaninoff The Bells With The London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
Best Performance By An Orchestra
1960 Like Young With The David Rose Orchestra
Best Sound Track Album
1959 Gigi
1960 Porgy And Bess
Best Jazz Performance – Soloist Or Small Group
1961 West Side Story
1962 André Previn Plays That Old Black Magic Come Rain Or Come Shine Stormy Weather Over The Rainbow And Other Wonderful Songs By Harold Arlen read less