Previn in 2012.

André Previn has composed film scores (including many songs), jazz pieces and contemporary classical music. His earliest compositions known at least by name/type are student works from the mid-1940s (a clarinet sonata, a string quartet, a rhapsody for violin and orchestra and some art songs). They were written at the same time as he did his first work for the movies (1946) and his first jazz recordings (1945).

He composed the music for the film musical It's Always Fair Weather (1955), and music for five new songs written with Alan Jay Lerner for the film Paint Your Wagon (1969).

In Hollywood between 1946 and 1969, Previn also worked extensively as an adaptor, winning his four Academy Awards (out of 13 nominations) for works in this category: Gigi (Original score by Frederick Loewe for the film), Porgy and Bess (stage-to-film adaptation of George Gershwin's opera score), Irma la Douce (the film used the score of the stage musical by Marguerite Monnot, but the songs themselves were omitted) and My Fair Lady (stage-to-film adaptation of Fredrick Loewe's musical score). While working as an adaptor, Previn regularly modified the original compositions. At times, he was adding some own music, orchestrating, conducting and playing piano, as well.

In later years, he has concentrated on composing contemporary classical music. In this field, Previn's works as a composer "combine expressionistic harmony with a strong tendency towards tonality. They are rhythmic and metrically complex, marvelously orchestrated, and include flashes of idioms associated with jazz and symphonic film music. Despite the crossover appeal that Previn's art music provokes in the ears of many commentators, Previn does not see himself as a postmodern musician, trying to mix musical styles and elements to create new kinds of aesthetic experiences."[1] For example, he collaborated with Tom Stoppard on Every Good Boy Deserves Favour,[2] a play with substantial musical content, which was first performed in London in 1977 with Previn conducting the LSO. His first opera, A Streetcar Named Desire, premiered at the San Francisco Opera in 1998. It quickly developed into one of the most widely played contemporary operas.[3] His second opera, Brief Encounter, based on the 1945 movie of the same name, was premiered at Houston Grand Opera on May 1, 2009.[4] His numerous other contemporary classical works include vocal, chamber, and orchestral music. His contemporary classical music was premiered by artists like Vladimir Ashkenazy, Janet Baker, Yuri Bashmet, Renée Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Itzhak Perlman, John Williams, the Emerson String Quartet, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic. The closest working relationships with regard to Previn's contemporary classical music are with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, having premiered eight works between 2001 and 2015, and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, having premiered (as an ensemble or with smaller groups or soloists from its ranks) nine works between 1996 and 2012.

Catalog raisonné

For a full catalog raisonné containing the dates, places and participants of premieres as well as the names and sources for lost works (especially the early chamber and orchestral music), abandoned works (like the opera Silk or the film score to Goodbye, Mr. Chips), rejected works (like the film score to See No Evil) and withdrawn works (like the Cello Concerto No. 1) see Frédéric Döhl: André Previn. Musikalische Vielseitigkeit und ästhetische Erfahrung, Stuttgart 2012, p. 279-294.

Opera

Theater

Orchestral music (selection)

  • Overture to a Comedy (premiered in Los Angeles in 1963)
  • Cello Concerto No. 1 (premiered in Houston in 1968)
  • Violin Concerto No. 1 (1969)
  • Guitar Concerto (premiered in London, United Kingdom, in 1971)
  • Principals for Orchestra (premiered in Pittsburgh in 1980)
  • Reflections for English Horn (or Cello) and Orchestra (premiered at Saratoga Springs in 1981)
  • Piano Concerto (premiered in London, United Kingdom, in 1985)
  • Diversions for Orchestra (premiered in Salzburg, Austria, in 2000)
  • Violin Concerto No. 2 "Anne-Sophie" (written in 1999, published in 2001 and premiered in Boston in 2002)
  • Night Thoughts for Orchestra (premiered in Sacramento in 2006)
  • Double Concerto No. 1 for Violin, Double Bass and Orchestra (2004; premiered in Boston in 2007)
  • Harp Concerto (premiered in Pittsburgh in 2007)
  • Owls for Orchestra (premiered in Boston in 2008)
  • Double Concerto No. 2 for Violin, Viola and Orchestra (premiered in New York in 2009)
  • Cello Concerto No. 2 (premiered in Leipzig, Germany, 2011)
  • Triple Concerto for French Horn, Trumpet and Tuba (premiered in Pittsburgh in 2012)
  • Music for Boston for Orchestra (premiered in Tanglewood in 2012)
  • Violin Concerto No. 3 (requiring only a string orchestra; published in 2010 and premiered in Trondheim, Norway, two years later)
  • Music for Wind Orchestra (No Strings Attached) (premiered in Rochester, NY in 2014)
  • Double Concerto No. 3 for Violin, Cello and Orchestra (premiered in Cincinnati in 2014)
  • Can Spring Be Far Behind? for Orchestra (premiered in Greensboro/NC in 2016)
  • Concerto for Orchestra (premiered in Kalamazoo in 2022)
  • Almost an Overture for Orchestra (premiered in Newport, RI in 2017)

Chamber music (selection)

  • Violin Sonata No. 1 (ca. 1960, possibly rejected by the composer)
  • Four Outings for Brass (premiered in London in 1974)
  • Two Little Serenades for Violin and Piano (premiered in New York in 1974)
  • Peaches for Flute and Piano (ca. 1978)
  • Triolet for Brass (ca. 1985)
  • A Wedding Waltz for 2 Oboes and Piano (ca. 1986)
  • Sonata for Cello and Piano (premiered in Amsterdam in 1993)
  • Trio for Piano, Oboe and Bassoon (premiered in New York in 1996)
  • Sonata (No. 2) Vineyard for Violin and Piano (written in 1994, premiered in New York in 1996)
  • Sonata for Bassoon and Piano (premiered in New York in 1999)
  • Tango, Song and Dance, for Violin and Piano (premiered in Luzern, Switzerland, in 2001)
  • String Quartet with Soprano (premiered in New York in 2003)
  • Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello (premiered in New York in 2009)
  • Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (premiered in Prague, Czech Republic, in 2010)
  • Octet for Eleven (premiered in Boston in 2010)
  • Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet (premiered in Boston in 2011)
  • Trio (No. 2) for Piano, Violin and Cello (premiered in New York in 2012)
  • Sonata (No. 3, publ. as "No. 2"[5]) for Violin and Piano (premiered in New York in 2013)
  • Nonet (premiered in Edinburgh in 2015)
  • Morning Rain and Warm Evening for Violin and Piano (not yet premiered[6])

Solo piano music (selection)

  • Impressions for Piano (20 pieces for students) (ca. 1964)
  • Paraphrase on a Theme of William Walton (premiered in London, United Kingdom, in 1973)
  • Invisible Drummer. Five Preludes (premiered in Liverpool, United Kingdom, in 1974)
  • Five Pages from My Calendar (ca. 1978)
  • Matthew's Piano Book (10 pieces for students) (ca. 1979)
  • Variations on a Theme by Haydn (ca. 1990)

Songs and song cycles

  • Five Songs, Texts by Philip Larkin (premiered in London, United Kingdom, in 1977)
  • Honey and Rue for Soprano, Jazz Band and Orchestra, Texts by Toni Morrison (premiered in New York in 1992)
  • Sallie Chisum Remembers Billy the Kid, Texts by Michael Ondaatje (premiered in Tanglewood in 1994)
  • Four Songs, Texts by Toni Morrison (premiered in New York in 1994)
  • Vocalise (premiered in Tanglewood in 1995)
  • Three Dickinson Songs, Texts by Emily Dickinson (premiered in Quebec, Canada, in 1999)
  • The Giraffes Go to Hamburg, Text by Karen Blixen (premiered in Newark in 2000)
  • Four Songs, Texts by Philip Larkin and William Carlos Williams (premiered in New York in 2004)
  • Sieben Lieder (Seven Songs), Texts by Theodor Storm (US premiere in San Francisco in 2006)

Film scores (selection)

Original scores

Adaptation of original scores or songs by others

Adaptation for film of stage musical or opera by others

Adaptation for film of classical music by others

Television Theme Music

Notable jazz and pop songs (from soundtracks or jazz records – selection)

References

  1. ↑ Frédéric Döhl, André Previn, in: Charles Hiroshi Garrett (Ed.): New Grove Dictionary of American Music. 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, New York 2012.
  2. ↑ Michael Billington (January 19, 2009). "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour". The Guardian. Retrieved September 6, 2009.
  3. ↑ Frédéric Döhl: Movie for the stage? Zu André Previns Opern, in Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 69/1 (2012), p. 55.
  4. ↑ Frédéric Döhl: About the Task of Adapting a Movie Classic for the Opera Stage: On André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire (1998) and Brief Encounter (2009), in: Frédéric Döhl & Gregor Herzfeld (eds.): In Search of the Great American Opera: Tendenzen des amerikanischen Musiktheaters, Münster 2016, p. 147–175.
  5. ↑ "Previn's publisher G. Schirmer announced this Violin Sonate as "No. 2", but there is an earlier third Violin Sonata from around 1960 (like other early compositions possibly rejected by the composer in later years), see Frédéric Döhl, André Previn. Musikalische Vielseitigkeit und ästhetische Erfahrung, Stuttgart 2012, p. 285, 292". Retrieved 2012-06-24.
  6. ↑ Morning Rain and Warm Evening | André Previn - Wise Music Classical
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