André Previn - A Celebration
full contents list at end of review
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON DG 477 8114 [6 CDs: 7:17:00].
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
We are told that the conductor selected his favourite recordings for this
collection and we have every reason to applaud his good judgement.
Full Contents list:-
André Previn - A Celebration
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]