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March 2, 2019 7:57 AM Subscribe
André Previn (April 6, 1929 – February 28, 2019), pianist, composer and conductor, most famously with the London Symphony Orchestra passed away last Thursday. Notwithstanding his long and succesful career in classical and jazz music, in Britain he'll be mostly be remembered for one very special guest appearance on a certain comedy show.
Some tributes from members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
posted by octothorpe at 8:44 AM on March 2, 2019
posted by octothorpe at 8:44 AM on March 2, 2019
Previn conducting the Grieg Piano Concerto (for real)
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posted by What is E. T. short for? at 9:14 AM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by What is E. T. short for? at 9:14 AM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
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Previn was premiere at what he did in basically any track he pursued, from jazz to composition to conducting to instrumentalist.
It is easy to forget that the only reason the Morecambe and Wise sketch was put together was that Previn was famous enough to be instantly recognisable to the audience. Few other classical musicians have achieved that level of fame.
He was also married to the late, great Dory Previn.
NY Times Obit.
posted by rongorongo at 9:46 AM on March 2, 2019 [7 favorites]
Previn was premiere at what he did in basically any track he pursued, from jazz to composition to conducting to instrumentalist.
It is easy to forget that the only reason the Morecambe and Wise sketch was put together was that Previn was famous enough to be instantly recognisable to the audience. Few other classical musicians have achieved that level of fame.
He was also married to the late, great Dory Previn.
NY Times Obit.
posted by rongorongo at 9:46 AM on March 2, 2019 [7 favorites]
This was deeply saddening to hear. His stint leading the LSO produced 1971's Previn Plays Gershwin, the hands down best recording—to my ears anyway— of Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, and the sublime Piano Concerto in F Major. I credit that recording entirely with my love of concert music. Can't remember exactly how I stumbled across it as a teenager, but even as a teenager unschooled in music his piano work was magic.
It was only a few years later that I learned that André Previn began his career as a jazz pianist, later moving into concert music, which explained why he was just So. Damn. Good. at interpreting Gershwin. It took someone as gifted as Previn at spanning genres to make the perfect recording of the only man to successfully fuse jazz and concert music.
Such an interesting, globe-spanning life. So long, Mr Previn. Thirty years ago you opened my teenage ears to a whole 'nother world of music, and I've always been deeply grateful for that.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 9:58 AM on March 2, 2019 [5 favorites]
It was only a few years later that I learned that André Previn began his career as a jazz pianist, later moving into concert music, which explained why he was just So. Damn. Good. at interpreting Gershwin. It took someone as gifted as Previn at spanning genres to make the perfect recording of the only man to successfully fuse jazz and concert music.
Such an interesting, globe-spanning life. So long, Mr Previn. Thirty years ago you opened my teenage ears to a whole 'nother world of music, and I've always been deeply grateful for that.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 9:58 AM on March 2, 2019 [5 favorites]
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Every once in a while, I run into a matter of fact passage in a person's biography that stops me cold (from rongorongo's linked Wikipedia article on Dory Previn):
Every once in a while, I run into a matter of fact passage in a person's biography that stops me cold (from rongorongo's linked Wikipedia article on Dory Previn):
She had a troubled relationship with her father, especially during childhood. He had served in the First World War and been gassed, and experienced periods of depression and violent mood swings.[1] He tended to alternately embrace and reject her, but supported her when she began to show talents for singing and dancing. However, his mental health deteriorated after the birth of a second daughter, culminating in a paranoid episode in which he boarded the family up in their home and held them at gunpoint for several months.posted by jamjam at 10:41 AM on March 2, 2019 [5 favorites]
Dory Previn even recorded a song about that incident. Her albums are wonderful — brilliant and unflinching. She's very upfront about her life in her music, even though most of her music isn't (strictly) autobiographical. (Even if "Beware of Young Girls" about Mia Farrow might be her most famous song.)
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 11:08 AM on March 2, 2019
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 11:08 AM on March 2, 2019
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posted by dannyboybell at 3:20 PM on March 2, 2019
posted by dannyboybell at 3:20 PM on March 2, 2019
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posted by Joey Michaels at 6:59 PM on March 2, 2019
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:59 PM on March 2, 2019
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posted by Standard Orange at 2:54 AM on March 3, 2019
posted by Standard Orange at 2:54 AM on March 3, 2019
So those years are fading now but that comedy sketch really was iconic at the time and for a long time later and even now it'll probably be in some M&W highlights program somewhere in the UK's Christmas tv schedule.
I like the bit in one of the obits I read that Previn would just ring up EMI, tell them his latest symphony rehearsals were going well and the'd send round a recording team. Classical music really was taken seriously back then.
I never knew he did so much film work - Rollerball for instance.
He was an true icon - probably the only conductor to achieve such fame among the general public here - the guy was so well known he even advertised televisions! (I mainly remember this because some poor sod at college called Ferguson gained the nick-name 'TX')
He really did all the right notes.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:55 AM on March 3, 2019
I like the bit in one of the obits I read that Previn would just ring up EMI, tell them his latest symphony rehearsals were going well and the'd send round a recording team. Classical music really was taken seriously back then.
I never knew he did so much film work - Rollerball for instance.
He was an true icon - probably the only conductor to achieve such fame among the general public here - the guy was so well known he even advertised televisions! (I mainly remember this because some poor sod at college called Ferguson gained the nick-name 'TX')
He really did all the right notes.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:55 AM on March 3, 2019
Previn and Bernstein and......
Yeah, I ain't got anyone else.
posted by hippybear at 7:19 AM on March 3, 2019
Yeah, I ain't got anyone else.
posted by hippybear at 7:19 AM on March 3, 2019
Lorin Maazel was well known enough to get an obit post on the blue. John Williams of course but he's obviously better known as a film composer than a conductor.
posted by octothorpe at 7:33 AM on March 3, 2019
posted by octothorpe at 7:33 AM on March 3, 2019
Simon Rattle is pretty well known in the UK... but he's not household name famous like Previn was. Can't think of anyone else close.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:12 AM on March 3, 2019
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:12 AM on March 3, 2019
I was just thinking about how Previn did most of everything that Bernstein did (maybe not the teaching/writing), and was a better and more supportive and nicer person while doing it all. But as a composer, I don't know that anything he wrote has achieved the iconic, cultural-repertory status of, say, West Side Story, so his work never quite reached Bernstein-level cultural impact, despite being on TV to an audience of millions, etc. (Which is not to say that his work hasn't had enormous cultural impact, just that I find it kind of curious that, even among concert/classical musicians, he's not really very high profile in terms of influence.)
Personally, I have long admired his body of work, and that he saw no real boundaries in music, music-making and culture. It would be excellent to have more like him.
the only man to successfully fuse jazz and concert music.
In honor of Previn's dual primary musical interests, may I submit a few examples for consideration alongside the Gershwin Rhapsody (composed 1924)?
George Antheil (1925) (Gershwin: "I really can't compare Antheil's jazz with mine. He deals in polytonalities and dissonance and follows Stravinsky and the French.")
Darius Milhaud (1923)
Igor Stravinsky (1919) (also this, same year)
Mark-Anthony Turnage & John Scofield (2003)
Stravinsky/The Bad Plus (1913/2014)
(does this count?) Jacob Collier w/Metropole Orkest feat. Take 6 (2018)
posted by LooseFilter at 8:16 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
Personally, I have long admired his body of work, and that he saw no real boundaries in music, music-making and culture. It would be excellent to have more like him.
the only man to successfully fuse jazz and concert music.
In honor of Previn's dual primary musical interests, may I submit a few examples for consideration alongside the Gershwin Rhapsody (composed 1924)?
George Antheil (1925) (Gershwin: "I really can't compare Antheil's jazz with mine. He deals in polytonalities and dissonance and follows Stravinsky and the French.")
Darius Milhaud (1923)
Igor Stravinsky (1919) (also this, same year)
Mark-Anthony Turnage & John Scofield (2003)
Stravinsky/The Bad Plus (1913/2014)
(does this count?) Jacob Collier w/Metropole Orkest feat. Take 6 (2018)
posted by LooseFilter at 8:16 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
He was an true icon - probably the only conductor to achieve such fame among the general public here…
So true. You can count on a few fingers how many conductors of symphonic orchestras have been called out in pop songs.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 12:26 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
So true. You can count on a few fingers how many conductors of symphonic orchestras have been called out in pop songs.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 12:26 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by LeftMyHeartInSanFrancisco at 11:02 PM on March 4, 2019
posted by LeftMyHeartInSanFrancisco at 11:02 PM on March 4, 2019
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Sure, hahaha, he did a comedy sketch 50 years ago.
He's going to be remembered and his death will be mourned for OH SO MUCH MORE than that.
We lost a giant. All our lives are richer for him having been here.
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posted by hippybear at 8:31 AM on March 2, 2019 [9 favorites]