Word: previn
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...Previn can no longer be dismissed as a Hollywood upstart from the wrong side of the sound tracks. At the piano, in jazz or in Brahms, his playing is fluid and sparkling with character, although he often seems restrained, as if afraid of damaging the keys. His podium manner is similarly unshowman-like-self-effacing, in fact-but his sure beat, his quest for clarity of sound and shape, have reaffirmed the L.S.O. as one of the world's best orchestras...
Ever since his German refugee parents took him, at age nine, from Berlin to America, Previn has been feeding on music. When his father had friends in for chamber music, Andre sat under the piano and listened. Later he got up and sat at the keyboard, learning to play symphonies in piano transcriptions. He also studied composing and conducting. At 16, he was scoring at MGM-with starlets as well as music. With his second wife Dory, he wrote pop hits. He collected Oscars and money...
...brilliant' movie for Debbie Reynolds, I'd prefer to conduct Brahms' Requiem in Kalamazoo and fail." So he conducted Brahms' Requiem in Kalamazoo and failed. Or maybe it was some other piece in some other town. In any case, it was tough starting. Eventually Previn won a regular post with the Houston Symphony. But after two lackluster seasons, he opted for the more sophisticated ambience of London...
Stopping at a Hampstead pub one day last week with his third wife, Actress Mia Farrow, Previn mused about his new life: "Some critics complain that I'm too facile, too concerned with sound rather than content. That hurts because I work hard, damned hard. But I do enjoy most making an orchestra 'sound,' making it project and play with the wish to sound beautiful. Do you know, every time I walk through Festival Hall when it's deserted, I'm moved? I realize I've achieved what I've always wanted...
With that, Previn walked to the bar for another round, and the publican said to him: "Mr. Previn, when are you going to give us another bit of Elgar?" To Andre Previn, that's worth a dozen Debbie Reynolds movies any time...