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André Previn

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André Previn (born April 6, 1929)¹ is a prominent German-born American pianist, orchestral conductor, and composer. (Previn himself is unsure in which year he was born, as his birth certificate was lost when he emigrated to the United States.)

Contents

[edit] Biography

André Previn was born Andreas Ludwig Priwin to a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany. His brother was the late director Steve Previn. With his family, he emigrated to the United States in 1938 to escape the Nazi-Regime in Germany. He became a US citizen in 1943, grew up in Los Angeles, and first came to prominence by arranging and composing Hollywood movie scores from 1948 onwards.

In 1967, Previn became conductor of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, and the following year added the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) to his portfolio. In subsequent years, he was at various times conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also recorded all three of Tchaikovsky's ballets - Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker - complete.

Previn has composed film scores and other musical works including a cello concerto and a guitar concerto. He has also adapted and conducted the music for several films - some of them stage-to-film adaptations (My Fair Lady, Kismet (musical), Porgy and Bess, Paint Your Wagon), but several especially for film, including the Academy Award-winning Gigi. (He also won Oscars for Porgy and Bess and My Fair Lady.)

In the mid-to-late 1950s, and more recently, he toured and recorded as a jazz pianist. Mainly recording for Contemporary Records, he worked with Shelly Manne and Benny Carter. An album he recorded with Manne of songs from My Fair Lady (1956) was a best-seller. He collaborated with Julie Andrews on a collection of Christmas carols in 1966, focusing on rarely heard carols. This popular album has been reissued many times over the years, and is now available on CD.

In later years, he has concentrated on composing classical music. He collaborated with Tom Stoppard on Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, a play with substantial musical content which was first performed in London in 1977 with Previn conducting the LSO. His first opera, A Streetcar Named Desire, premiered at the San Francisco Opera in 1998. His numerous other classical works include vocal, chamber, and orchestral music.

In the UK, he is particularly remembered for his performance as "Mr Andrew Preview" (or 'Privet') on the Morecambe and Wise show, which involved his conducting a spoof performance of Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto, with Eric Morecambe as the soloist. Because of other commitments, the only time available for Previn to learn his part was during a transatlantic flight, but the talent he showed for comedy won high praise from his co-performers.

Previn has been married five times. His first two marriages, to Dory Previn and then to Mia Farrow, kept him in the public eye. After marriages to Betty Bennett and Heather Sneddon, in 2002 he wed the renowned German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. He wrote a violin concerto for her. The couple announced their divorce in August 2006.

Previn wrote a memoir of his early Hollywood years, No Minor Chords, which was published in 1991.

[edit] Awards and recognitions

Previn received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1998 in recognition for his contributions to classical music and opera in the United States.

He is also an honorary Knight of the British Empire. While he is not entitled to the form "Sir André Previn" as he is not a British subject, he is entitled to use the post-nominal letters KBE.

In 2005, Previn was awarded the prestigious Glenn Gould Prize in recognition of his achievements.

Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:

[edit] Trivia

At his Summer 1946 graduation from Beverly Hills High School Previn played a musical duet with Richard M. Sherman: Previn played the piano, accompanying Sherman (who played flute). Coincidentally, twenty one years later, both composers won Oscars for different films, both winning in musical categories.

Nickname given to him by composer/arranger/orchestrator Conrad Salinger: "Elsie."

[edit] Work on Broadway

[edit] Movie scores

Previn has scored over 50 films including for example:

Previn has received 13 Academy Award nominations and won 4 Oscars. His Oscar-winning films:

[edit] External links

Preceded by:
John Barbirolli 		Music Director, Houston Symphony Orchestra
1967–1969 		Succeeded by:
Lawrence Foster
Preceded by:
Istvan Kertesz 		Principal Conductor, London Symphony Orchestra
1968–1979 		Succeeded by:
Claudio Abbado
Preceded by:
William Steinberg 		Music Director, Pittsburgh Symphony
1976–1984 		Succeeded by:
Lorin Maazel
Preceded by:
Carlo Maria Giulini 		Music Director, Los Angeles Philharmonic
1985–1989 		Succeeded by:
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Preceded by:
Walter Weller 		Principal Conductor, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
1985–1992 		Succeeded by:
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Preceded by:
Mariss Jansons 		Music Director, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra
2002–2006 		Succeeded by:
Jukka-Pekka Saraste
de:André Previn

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