Just what is left for Andre Previn to do?
Big-time conductor? He’s conducted most of the world’s orchestras, from Vienna to Berlin to London.
Powerful music director? In Houston, Pittsburgh, London’s Royal Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a 1985-89 tenure with a stormy end.
The siren song of Hollywood? Previn followed it for nearly two decades, scoring movies until 1964. Television beckoned with his “Previn and Pittsburgh” concerts on PBS in the ’70s. Previn has visited chamber music and jazz often with performances and recordings.
As a journalist, Previn has produced radio programs and written a book on his Hollywood years, “No Minor Chords.” As a pianist, he has accompanied singers such as Sylvia McNair on the popular recent recording of Jerome Kern songs.
And he has not neglected composing. He’s written song cycles for the likes of Janet Baker and Kathleen Battle, a piano concerto for Vladimir Ashkenazy, a cello concerto for Yo-Yo Ma. His “Every Good Boy Deserves Favour,” a music drama to a text by Tom Stoppard, has been performed more than 300 times. As composers put it, his plate is full these days with commissions.
He’s even been brushed by the gaudy carousel of fame. He was married for nine years to actress Mia Farrow; it was during this time that the couple adopted Soon-Yi. The later blow-up with Woody Allen is a topic Previn prefers not to talk about.
So it could be asked of Previn, who turned 66 on April 6, what’s left after this impressively versatile career?
“That’s like asking someone who writes books what he’s going to do with the rest of this life,” Previn said.
“I like to conduct, play the piano and compose music. I’m going to keep doing those things.”
Previn is exercising the first part of his talents by taking the Orchestra of St. Luke’s on its first national tour. Not well-known outside its New York City home, the orchestra consists of some of the city’s top free-lance musicians and has an excellent reputation.
“I think they are the best chamber orchestra in the United States,” Previn said. “I know them from the Caramoor Festival, where I’m artistic adviser. We do a lot of concerts together every summer, and they play great.”
Born in Berlin and raised in Los Angeles, Previn’s career has given him a unique position from which to observe the classical music industry. In Los Angeles, for example, he’s been a leading figure in two of the city’s most powerful musical institutions: Hollywood’s clique of film composers and the L.A. Philharmonic.
“Actually, I think classical music is quite healthy,” Previn said. “Though it has to be said that the interest of some major governments seems to be lacking,” referring to the political turmoil that surrounds the National Endowment for the Arts.
“This business with NEA is really ridiculous, and it’s going to put even more of a burden on classical music in this country,” Previn said.
“And a similar thing is going on in London. But you know, in Vienna the Philharmonic and the Opera are seen as an absolute necessity of life. They’re not seen as elitist toys. It would be nice if the arts were backed up a little by the government.”
Previn made a transition from Hollywood to the concert hall in the ’60s, just as the NEA was planting seeds that would become partly responsible for the large increase in symphony orchestras in this country. With a past in the worlds of entertainment and the arts, Previn keenly recognizes the predicament in which concert music finds itself.
“You can’t walk out on stage in front of an audience who has paid to see you and simply declare that it’s not entertainment,” Previn said. “On the other hand, to equate it with the circus is wrong. It’s insulting to regard classical music as pure entertainment. The bottom line is that it would be blind to disregard the audience.”
Previn is emphatic about one course he does not believe the symphony orchestra should take: blending the music of film into the concert hall.
“No. A flat, unmistakable no,” he said. “You can’t write music that is essentially for the accompaniment of one medium and then expect to hear that entity for itself. It won’t work.
“There are these exceptions, like Nevsky’ and `The Red Pony’ and all that. But film music is written in stretches of never more than four or five minutes.
“It’s perfectly possible to have a brilliant movie score that should be admired, but not for the concert hall,” he said. “At least not for a long time.”
But the ever-frenetic pace of Previn’s activities does not suggest a purist. Besides his tour with St. Luke’s, Previn is busy conducting orchestras such as the Dresden Staatskapelle, New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra, and performing with his Andre Previn Jazz Trio. Another follow-up disc with soprano McNair, this time singing songs of Harold Arlen, is in the offing.
And the composing jobs keep rolling in.
“I’m writing another song cycle for Sylvia McNair, another for Barbara Bonney, a violin sonata for Gil Shaham, a piece for the London Symphony Orchestra and the biggest thing, a new opera, which I can’t talk about,” he said.
When does he find time to nurture all this versatility? Once again, Previn doesn’t offer answers.
“Anything I say would sound self-aggrandizing, so I’m not going to say anything.”
