With this nicely presented set DG celebrates André Previn's
80th birthday featuring him as conductor, composer and performer.
The concentration is on the concert hall rather than any of
the other worlds he has inhabited - no sign of his film music
and no sign of his jazz escapades. We can leave Previn’s
film scores for now but perhaps Chandos would add his name to
their series - not least for his score for The Four Horsemen
of the Apocalypse. No doubt Previn’s many jazz albums
will also come together but in the meantime do not forget his
5 CD set Andre Previn - The Collection: Fascinatin’
Rhythm and a triple jazz album, all on Telarc who also carry
quite a few Previn classical albums.
We are told that the conductor selected his favourite recordings
for this collection and we have every reason to applaud his
good judgement. The booklet includes a typically self-effacing
personal note from Previn as well as a personal assessment by
Marc Mandel. We have to do without any profiles of the works
in question and make do with a very thorough track-listing and
all discographical details. There are no texts or translations
for the sung works.
DG’s entry deftly complements the EMI Classics box which
reflects Previn’s hectic years with the LSO in the 1970s.
Previn’s skills are multifold but amongst them is his
role as a superb communicator. His Andre Previn’s Music
Night was a well-loved and popular fixture on BBCTV in the
1970s and caught the imagination of many viewers in much the
same way that Evelyn Glennie’s TV series did in the late
1980s. His gift for British music is evident from his EMI and
Telarc catalogues. RVW, Walton and Elgar were done in great
style - rarely, if ever, anything more exotic: no Bax or Foulds.
It’s a pity he never felt moved to conduct the Moeran
Symphony or Bax Symphony 5 or 6.
Previn’s has had a migratory history when it comes to
labels: RCA then EMI, a flutter with Decca then Telarc and then
DG-Universal. These are from the most recent phase. The recordings
in this DG box range in age from 1975 to 2007 though most are
from the nineteen-nineties. All are in excellent sound. I am
pleased to say that there’s a goodly contingent of Previn’s
own compositions. These include the first release of the world-premiere
live recording of Previn's double concerto for violin and contrabass
featuring his fifth wife Anne-Sophie Mutter (they were divorced
in 1999) and the young contrabass player, Roman Patkoló.
Patkoló, like the greatly talented violinist Vilde Frang,
was the recipient of a stipend from the Mutter Foundation in
1999.
The Violin Concerto he wrote for and named after Mutter is present
on CD 5. We also have three other Previn works complete and
an extract from Previn’s opera A Streetcar Named Desire.
His second stage work, a Houston Opera commission, is an adaptation
of the film Brief Encounter. I do not know if this is
in the pipeline but look out for a recording of that work.
After this experience one hopes for a complete Previn concert
and theatre works collection some time soon. Interestingly there
is no shortage of concertos from his pen but there’s no
symphony? I also always half expected a saxophone concerto from
Previn but nothing so far.
CD 1 provides us with two key works from Ravel. L'enfant
et les sortilèges deploys Elizabeth Futral
who sings Laura Jesson in Previn’s second opera Brief
Encounter premiered in Houston in May 2009 - she clearly
made an impression. It is such an inventive score - a glossary
of coups and effects but musical always musical. This is generously
laid out in 25 tracks delivering a lovely finely pointilliste
image - lush yet detailed, deeply satisfying - clear and startlingly
immediate. While the singers’ are not native French speakers
and their accents are in some cases just the wring side of convincing
everyone enters into the spirit of things. There are intimations
of what Weill would be doing in years to come - shades of Surabaya
Johnny. I also noted the zephyr evocations and flutter-tongued
flute in Adieu pastourelles. They are like the Atlantic
breezes Louis Aubert’s Tombeau De Chateaubriand.
The wild and roiling interweaving of the groaning trombones
in tr. 15 is memorable amongst so much else. Sunset sea-surge
of the finale is most beautifully done and its slow ascent through
shimmering pastel lights 25. Ma mere l’oye
is heard in the full ballet version and again in thoroughly
gorgeous sound. In its pellucid glistening web of sound it is
one of Ravel’s most sheerly beautiful scores. There are
s many examples but choosing one at hazard: try tr. 31 4:38
and the beautiful lusciously-toned solo violin. Then there’s
the irresistible lump-in-the-throat tolling apotheosis though
I do feel that horns do not assert themselves strongly enough.
Monteux
- with whom Previn worked in Hancock, Maine alongside Lorin
Maazel, Neville Marriner, Werner Torkanowsky and David Zinman
- manages it better. There’s an identical Ravel CD from
Rattle in the 1980s (EMI)
and Maazel in 1961 (DG).
CD 2 - which is packed to the gunwhales - mixes Previn and
Prokofiev. The Previn Double Concerto, in three movements
and an interlude, is very romantic. It is redolent of the viola
and violin partnership in the superb Arthur Benjamin Romantic
Fantasy. His film music apprenticeship shows through in the
work’s lushness and there are linkages with Rozsa (Sinfonia
Concertante) and Korngold. The middle movement is harmonically
subtle and for me evokes a slowly unfolding petal. There’s
melancholia there among the roseate romance. The finale is playful
à la streetcar in Barber's Knoxville but
extended beyond the brief appearance in the Barber. Applause
from this live recording of the premiere in April 2007 is left
in. The Previn Piano Concerto tracks Poulenc in casual
part-jazzy part-Waltonian first movement with some gloriously
lush french horns. I always wanted Previn to do the Schuman
Third Symphony and perhaps he did too given parts of this movement.
It’s again very romantic, superbly rounded and wonderfully
timed. The Andante and variations are more indulgent. Midnight
thoughts and dawn revelations are suggested with great complexity
of mood and even dissonance is embraced. I was impressed by
the macabre col legno work at 8.00 and the Bernstein
storm that follows. It’s all resolved into a softest of
soft shimmers. In the finale the flit and flicker piano part
reflects metropolitan brash Previn. It’s flashy stuff
- a bit like the piano work Previn had to play when accompanying
Vacchiano in Shostakovich
1. There’s a bit more display here than in the Double
Concerto. The sign-off is a Waltonian conflagration with warbling
and buzzing horns romp into that final affirmatively thundering
thud.
Somewhat out on a limb in this box, the 1975 Decca inscription
by Chung and Previn of Prokofiev’s First - and
for me preferred - Violin Concerto is the only analogue
recording present. You can hear the background ‘hush’.
I am however delighted that it’s here. It still has so
much to commend it. The recording was made in the late-lamented
Kingsway Hall in October 1975. Chung’s slender and finely
spun silver tone can be compared with a recent issue from EMI:
Vilde Frang. Frang is however devastatingly well recorded -
very natural but splendidly detailed - and she has, for me,
a better sense of fairytale Grand Guignol.
CD 3: Previn initially recorded Shostakovich 8
during his 1970s hey-day as a young conductor. That 1973 EMI
Classics recording remains stern competition for his older self
in the 1990s. This version while toweringly recorded is without
the bite of the earlier one. I know it’s a cliché
but I sensed a more philosophical approach with the devastatingly
imaginative blade and raw emotion he applied in the 1970s being
less in evidence. This came home to me particularly in the first
and last movements. The penultimate movement is however very
satisfying with the suggestion of chaos just as strong. Indeed
the Largo is very powerful. In a world of intégrales
it is interesting that Previn has not gone for a complete Shostakovich
cycle. This 8 is by no means negligible but for all its superb
recording quality - listen to the imaginative stereo separation
in the third movement - it lacks the acrid fumes and cordite
he brought to his 1973 version.
CD 4: Previn and Korngold. Though we must never
forget Gerhardt and Korngold Previn certainly seemed made for
the Korngold renaissance. The Symphony is of epic proportions
and substance. In the first movement the woodwind solos are
full of character and the striving against adversity is patent.
The glorious second movement - edgy zingy scherzo - does not
lack for verve. It is much more than dapper. The woodwind yelps
and expansive horn choir are tirelessly noble and tragic. At
6:03 a sort of affectionate weariness enters. In the third a
grief-laden underlay is at last tellingly to the fore. This
work even sounds good on modest equipment. Previn’s reading
has more character than that of Welser-Möst now on an EMI
twofer. It was made at All Hallows, Gospel Oak which on this
showing is a prime audio venue as good as the Kingsway Hall
of yore. Record producers with teams as good as DG’s should
be beating a track there.
Mutter and Previn take the Violin Concerto and lend it
a trembling lump in the throat. Mutter’s tone is noble
and upstanding and imparts an emotional nobility to the music.
The romantic melos is superbly caught by the recording and the
pizzicato in the finale has a sternum-shaking impact. This is
closer to Heifetz but without his bullet-proof emotional carapace.
She deploys a restrained vibrato which reminded me (3:10 - 3:53)
of Stern in his classic Barber concerto recording. Mutter is
more emotionally fearless but while this is wonderful I still
favour the constraint of Anima Mathé on Dorian.
The middle movement has a glistening Christmassy beauty that
should bring a tear to the driest eye and the hardest heart.
This is remarkable playing.
This recording of the Violin Concerto is from a live concert
in 2006. It is hemmed about with exalted and robust competition.
My favourites include the deliberately unglamorous 1994 version
by Ulrike-Anima Mathé on Dorian DOR-90216 and, from
much earlier, the equally understated Ulf Hoelscher. Worth hearing
alongside Hoelscher (EMI Red Line) are Cuckson (Centaur),
Schmid (Oehms), Ehnes (Onyx), Shaham (DG), Perlman (EMI Classics 5096762)
and Mutter (DG). They’re all a freshening breeze and relief
from Heifetz's relentless hegemony on BMG-RCA.
This disc represents another great and gratifying recording
which has front to back depth and a splendidly wide soundstage.
Do not forget Previn’s excellent Korngold film music collection
taken down in Abbey Road in July 2001: DG 4713472.
CD 5: Previn’s Violin Concerto (Anne-Sophie)
dates from 2001. if you have been captivated by the Korngold
you will love this. Previn can yearn with the best and Mutter
is more than equal to the technical and emotional challenge.
It’s a pity they never recorded the Schoeck. The second
movement is more acidic, umbrageous, fantastic and ambiguous.
It communicates as a requiem or a journey through a threatening
landscape with a dear friend. It ends with what sounds to me
like a mediation between the Berg and the Korngold. The finale
returns to fluttering Korngoldian romance. There’s a relished
sunset with jazzy invigorating asides, a lament and a sense
of cold entering the bones. There’s a Schmidt-like horn
motif behind the violin during the last pages. No applause this
time.
The Three Dickinson Songs feature the composer and Renee
Fleming. Two slow songs frame a quick one. Fleming’s glorious
operatic voice obscures the words as they sink into the luxury
but her acting ability is wonderful. The second song is almost
Sondheim and passes in a rippling rush. The last song majors
on lassitude and lightly disillusioned lovely piano inflections
and trills. It’s delightful. Programme assemblers should
not forget these songs when building American recitals for Rorem,
Barber and Bernstein. I can smell the sea airis
a brief but magnificent aria from Previn’s 1998 opera
A Streetcar Named Desire. Renee Fleming assumes a decadently
blowsy accent as poor shallow Blanche. This is a lavish romantic
statement in which Previn has invested in every note his experience
of Rosenkavalier, of Puccini, of Korngold. It is just
superbly done and completely voluptuous and full of detail -
listen to the - streaming and then staccato harp at the climax.
It’s something of a pity that words are not supplied.
The Diversions were written for the VPO and we hear them
on this disc. The movements of this concerto for orchestra track
through restless, troubled and parodistic Shostakovich and offer
solo-spots for the principals of the orchestra. It ends in another
of those well calculated breathing and shivering gleams.
CD 6: The last disc is all Richard Strauss: this
time the Sinfonia Domestica and Rosenkavalier
suite. This perfectly complements and extends Previn’s
and the VPO’s overlooked Telarc Strauss odyssey. That
legacy is reflected in a 4 CD boxed set: Telarc 80428 (CD 1:
Don Juan [18:06]; Don Quixote [41:26]; CD 2: Also
sprach Zarathustra [34:57]; Tod und Verklarung [26:41];
CD 3: Eine Alpensinfonie [48:19]; CD 4: Ein Heldenleben
[46:14]; Four Last Songs (Arleen Auger, 1989): Frühling
[3:34]; September [4:40] Beim Schlafengehen [5:31];
Im Abendrot [8:17]). Those recordings date from 1988-1991
just before his move to Universal.
In 1992 Previn and the VPO were in the Musikverein Grossersaal
with the DG audio team for this five movement Rosenkavalier
confection. It’s as opulent as you could hope or
wish. The orchestral trumpets are captured with a wonderful
fruity clarity as are the priapic and exuberantly whooping horns
which blaze out in golden full-throated glory in the finale.
There’s a sedate waltz for Ochs and dripping schlagobers
in the Prelude to Act II. This is all about excess but such
excess ... Sadly the suite is in one big 22 minute slab. As
for Domestica, recorded three years later, Previn
brings out its Mozartean gamin playfulness without scouting
around the Korngold-style flourishes. It’s hardly the
most compelling of Strauss’s works but its sollipsistic
delights do have an appeal. Interesting to note how the exuberance
of Strauss can be heard in Previn’s own I can smell
the sea air from A Streetcar Named Desire.
Rob Barnett
Full Contents list
CD 1 [72:26]
Maurice RAVEL (1875 - 1937)
L'enfant et les sortilèges, opera-ballet in two
parts (1920-1925) [45:12]
Ma mère l'oye - ballet (1911-1912) [27:30]
Anne-Marie Owens (mezzo); Mark Tucker (tenor); Rinat Shaham
(soprano); Jacqueline Miura (voice); Mary Plazas (soprano);
Robert Lloyd (bass); Juanita Lascarro (soprano); Pamela Helen
Stephen (mezzo); David Wilson Johnson (baritone); Elizabeth
Futral (soprano); New London Children’s Choir/Ronald Corp;
London Symphony Chorus/Stephen Westrop
London Symphony Orchestra/André Previn
rec. London Abbey Road, Studio 1, June 1997
CD 2 [81:15]
André PREVIN (b.1929)
Double Concerto for violin, contrabass and orchestra (2007)
[27:35]
Roman Patkoló (double-bass); Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin)
Boston Symphony Orchestra/André Previn
Piano Concerto (1984) [31:26]
Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/André Previn
Sergei PROKOFIEV (1891 - 1953)
Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19 (1916-17) [20:49]
Kyung-Wha Chung (violin)
London Symphony Orchestra/André Previn
rec. Boston, Symphony Hall, April 2007 (Double); Walthamstow
Assembly Hall, June 1988 (Piano); London, Kingsway Hall, October
1975 (Prokofiev)
CD 3 [67:42]
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906 - 1975)
Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65 Stalingrad (1943) [67:09]
London Symphony Orchestra/André Previn
rec. All Saints Church, London, October 1992
CD 4 [76:54]
Erich Wolfgang KORNGOLD (1897 - 1957)
Symphony in F sharp major, Op. 40 (1947-1952) [52:28]
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 (1945) [23:02]
Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin)
London Symphony Orchestra/André Previn
All Hallows Gospel Oak, London, June 1996 (Sym); London Abbey
Rd, Studio 1, October 2003 (Cto)
CD 5 [74:44]
André PREVIN (b.1929)
Violin Concerto (Anne-Sophie) (2001) [39:03]
Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin)
Boston Symphony Orchestra/André Previn
Three Dickinson songs, for voice & piano (1999) [7:02]
André Previn (piano)
Diversions for orchestra (1999) [24:33]
Wolfgang Tombock (horn); Gotthard Eder (trumpet); Meinhart Niedermayr
(flute); Martin Gabriel (oboe); Franz Bartolomey (cello); Peter
Schmidl (clarinet); Günter Federsel (piccolo); Michael
Werba (bassoon)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/André Previn
A Streetcar Named Desire, opera: I can smell the sea
air (1998) [3:42]
Renée Fleming (soprano)
André Previn/Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
rec. Boston, Symphony Hall, October 2002 (Violin); American
Academy of Arts and Letters, NY (Songs; Diversions), May 2000;
War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco (Sea Air), Sept 1998.
CD 6 [64:16]
Richard STRAUSS (1864 - 1949)
Sinfonia Domestica for orchestra, Op. 53 (TrV 209) (1902-1903)
[42:35]
Der Rosenkavalier suite, Op. 59 (1945) [21:38]
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/André Previn
rec. Musikverein Grossersaal, Vienna, November 1995 (Sym); October
1992 (Rosenkavalier)
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 477 8114 [6 CDs: 7:17:00]
rec. 1975-2002
