The Recordings of Andre Previn

[Petrushka]

I think we discussed Previn's recordings fairly recently. To be honest, there's not a duff recording amongst them and you can't say that about many conductors can you?

I have vivid memories of those Music Night programmes and they introduced me to such a lot of music. Where is their equivalent today?

[Alison]

A word for the RPO remakes of many Previn party pieces.

It has been my great delight to discover some splendid performances that
tended to be too easily dismissed by the handful of critics who had any clout back in the eighties

Do check out the Planets, Rach 2, Walton 1, VW5 for starters.

[Alison]

The only really duff Previn CD I can think of is Elgar's Second Symphony. It just doesn't begin somehow.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

You have reminded me of one of my all-time favourite LPs. Janet Baker is more emotionally attuned to these Duparc songs even than native chanteuse - the incomparably fine mezzo, very well accompanied by Preview and the brilliant LSO of those days.

[teamsaint]

The Argerich piano concerto was released on a disc dedicated to Ms. Argerich coupled with the Tchaikovsky 1st concerto with Sir Charles Groves and (I think) the RLPO. The 'Kije' disc is coupled with Rach,aninov's 'The Bells'. I'd love to give you the disc numbers but we're getting new windows fitted tomorrow and all our DVDs are packed away. They should be easily found on Amazon.

bit drastic, just because you are getting new windows, isn't it ?

[pastoralguy]

[/B]

bit drastic, just because you are getting new windows, isn't it ?

Well, we've been quite shocked at how many DVDs we own. Just seem to keep coming.

[pastoralguy]

The only really duff Previn CD I can think of is Elgar's Second Symphony. It just doesn't begin somehow.

I agree. His Elgar 1 would (possibly) be a desert island disc for me.

[gurnemanz]

No better conductor of Rachmaninoff or Walton; no better set of RVW symphonies; no better Prokofiev ballets; excellent Gershwin, Tchaikovsky ballets; Chausson & Duparc with Baker; Turangalila - and, perhaps surprisingly (or perhaps not) two of the finest Brahms Requiems on record - pace the idiot on BaL recently who sneered at them both!

... plus Prokofiev Piano Concertos with Ashkenazy and Holst Egdon Heath.

[pastoralguy]

Has anyone mentioned his 'Carmina Burana'? Very good indeed.

[Tony Halstead]

Wasn't there a brilliant Grieg piano concerto with Eric Morecambe as soloist? That's his most memorable bit of conducting, imo.

(Sorry, but someone had to say it )

(Oh, I see Beef Oven sort of did.)

Ok, 'your starter for ten':

Give the conjugation of the ( somewhat obscure) verb 'to wasp'.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Has anyone mentioned his 'Carmina Burana'? Very good indeed.

The best performance by far IMO of that work. I actually think its quite fun! Love the Prokofiev Piano Concerto's set with Ashkenazy, Previn was a superb conductor when it came to accompanying soloists.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Previn was a superb conductor when it came to accompanying soloists.

- the Prokofiev Violin Concertos with Kyung-Wha Chung equally resplendent.

[Barbirollians]

- the Prokofiev Violin Concertos with Kyung-Wha Chung equally resplendent.

I agree absolutely marvellous and he did a pretty good job in the same works for Shaham many years later .

[cloughie]

Wasn't there a brilliant Grieg piano concerto with Eric Morecambe as soloist? That's his most memorable bit of conducting, imo.

(Sorry, but someone had to say it )

(Oh, I see Beef Oven sort of did.)

Now there's a surprise Mary - I thought when I spotted your lovely avatar that you would be commenting on how good his Britten was - and you come up with M&W!

Previn was not in the main OK - he did the Rachmaninov and Vaughan Williams, but mainly with symphonies did what he fancied rather than cycles eg Beethoven 5 & 7, Brahms 4, Mendelssohn 4, Tchaik 4 & 5, Prokofiev 1, 5, 7 and Shostakovich 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 13.

[Keraulophone]

Andre Previn was also a marvellous chamber music collaborator, as witness the lovely record he made of the Ravel Piano Trio c/w Shostakovitch PianoTrio No. 2, with Ralph Kirshbaum and Yong Uck Kim (EMI HQS 1330) - my introduction (at undergrad age) to these sublime masterpieces of chamber music.