Andre Previn, whose music knew no boundaries, dies
James Barron | NYT News Service | Mar 1, 2019, 07:34 IST
Andre Previn, who blurred the boundaries between jazz, pop and classical music — and between composing, conducting and performing — in an extraordinarily eclectic, award-filled career, died on Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was
89. His death was confirmed by his manager, Linda Petrikova.
Previn wrote or arranged the music for several dozen movies and was the only person in the history of the Academy Awards to receive three nominations in one year (1961, for the scores for “Elmer Gantry” and “Bells Are Ringing” and the song “Faraway Part of Town” from the comedy “Pepe”).
But audiences also knew him as a jazz pianist who appeared with Ella Fitzgerald, among others, and as a composer who turned out musicals, orchestral works, chamber music, two operas and several concertos for his fifth wife, the violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter.
Previn was also the music director or principal conductor of a half-dozen orchestras.
Critics described him as a “wunderkind in a turtleneck” and the “Mickey Mouse maestro” when he was in his 20s and 30s, and he was often compared to Leonard Bernstein, a similarly versatile conductor, composer and pianist.
Previn himself considered Bernstein an idol. “Bernstein has made it possible not to specialize in one area of music,” he said. “You no longer have to do just Broadway shows, or movies, or conduct — you can do any or all of them.”
And Previn did. In the 1960s, he appeared in sold-out classical and jazz concerts. Sometimes he combined genres, playing a concerto before intermission and jazz with a trio after. Dizzy Gillespie marvelled at his performances: “He has the flow, you know, which a lot of guys don’t have and won’t ever get.”
As a teen, he found work as a composer and arranger in the musical sweatshops of Hollywood, mostly at MGM, winning four Oscars for his orchstrations of such stylish musicals as 1964’s “My Fair Lady”.
His ex-wife Mia Farrow tweeted on Thursday, “See you in the Morning beloved Friend. May you rest in glorious symphonies.” Previn was a child prodigy whose family fled Nazi Germany.
89. His death was confirmed by his manager, Linda Petrikova.
Previn wrote or arranged the music for several dozen movies and was the only person in the history of the Academy Awards to receive three nominations in one year (1961, for the scores for “Elmer Gantry” and “Bells Are Ringing” and the song “Faraway Part of Town” from the comedy “Pepe”).
But audiences also knew him as a jazz pianist who appeared with Ella Fitzgerald, among others, and as a composer who turned out musicals, orchestral works, chamber music, two operas and several concertos for his fifth wife, the violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter.
Previn was also the music director or principal conductor of a half-dozen orchestras.
Critics described him as a “wunderkind in a turtleneck” and the “Mickey Mouse maestro” when he was in his 20s and 30s, and he was often compared to Leonard Bernstein, a similarly versatile conductor, composer and pianist.
Previn himself considered Bernstein an idol. “Bernstein has made it possible not to specialize in one area of music,” he said. “You no longer have to do just Broadway shows, or movies, or conduct — you can do any or all of them.”
And Previn did. In the 1960s, he appeared in sold-out classical and jazz concerts. Sometimes he combined genres, playing a concerto before intermission and jazz with a trio after. Dizzy Gillespie marvelled at his performances: “He has the flow, you know, which a lot of guys don’t have and won’t ever get.”
As a teen, he found work as a composer and arranger in the musical sweatshops of Hollywood, mostly at MGM, winning four Oscars for his orchstrations of such stylish musicals as 1964’s “My Fair Lady”.
His ex-wife Mia Farrow tweeted on Thursday, “See you in the Morning beloved Friend. May you rest in glorious symphonies.” Previn was a child prodigy whose family fled Nazi Germany.
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