Andre Previn

In addition to his regular quintet recordings with "His Men," drummer Shelly Manne recorded a series of trio dates with "His Friends" which generally included pianist Andre Previn and bassist Leroy Vinnegar; eventually Red Mitchell would take over the bass spot. This initial release from the group, as with all of the later sets, is really a showcase for the remarkable piano playing of Previn who was not even 27 yet but already had a dozen years of major league experience behind him. The trio largely sticks to standards and jazz tunes on this date with "Tangerine," Johnny Hodges's "Squatty Roo" and "Girl Friend" being among the highlights.

Despite the recording dates, the sound and balance are superb, and there's nothing to cloud your sense of Ashkenazy's greatness in all these works. From him every page declares Rachmaninov's nationality, his indelibly Russian nature. What nobility of feeling and what dark regions of the imagination he relishes and explores in page after page of the Third Concerto. Significantly his opening is a very moderate Allegro ma non tanto, later allowing him an expansiveness and imaginative scope hard to find in other more 'driven' or hectic performances. His rubato is as natural as it's distinctive, and his way of easing from one idea to another shows him at his most intimately and romantically responsive.

Anne-Sophie Mutter's virtuosity is so crystal clear that she doesn't even have to try any more. The ease with which she gets into her first solo in the Tchaikovsky is astounding–we hardly know what hit us–and she tackles the cadenza as if it were just another integral part of the work, rather than draw attention to the fact that it's a rather awkward cadenza at that. Her attacks are clean and strong and her tone is always deep and round; this is the epitome of the Romantic approach. The final movement draws attention to itself somewhat, but the listener remains dazzled.

Mozart, who composed 21 piano concerti, can be regarded as the “inventor” of the popular piano concerto. Although J.S. Bach and his son had written numerous concerti for harpsichord or fortepiano and orchestra before him, Mozart’s enormous input to the genre is mostly due to his concerti being regarded as ‘popular music’ by his contemporaries: to be enjoyed and replaced quickly by newer works. For this series on four DVDs, the most influential, the most artistically challenging and the most popular piano concerti have been selected to be performed by the best Mozart interpreters of our time. The second volume features pianists André Previn, Zoltán Kocsis and Heidrun Holtmann performing the piano concerti Nos 1, 4, 23 and 24. The performances on this DVD were shot in highly attractive baroque venues – at the Teatro Scientifico del Bibiena in Mantua, in the Rittersaal of the Palais Waldstein in Prague and in the Grosse Galerie at Schloss Schönbrunn in Vienna – capturing the atmosphere of Mozart’s lifetime.

Ella Fitzgerald, who in the late '50s recorded the very extensive George and Ira Gershwin Songbook, revisits their music on this duet outing with pianist André Previn. Her voice was past her prime by this point, but she was able to bring out a lot of the beauty in the ten songs, giving the classic melodies and lyrics tasteful and lightly swinging treatment. Nice Work If You Can Get It is not an essential CD but is a reasonably enjoyable outing.

On this disc, the playing's the thing and it is fabulous. Originally made in 1979 and 1980, these recordings capture Perlman at his incomparable peak. The effortless perfection of his technique leaves you gasping in disbelief; even the infamously unplayable passages in the Sibelius Finale are tossed off with easy nonchalance, and he avoids the false accents often heard in the treacherous opening theme. And Perlman's toneis warm, mellow, pure, and constantly expressive; its golden glow is like burnished copper on the low strings, like radiant sunshine up high, and he can vary it instantaneously with bow and vibrato to fit the music.

Hector Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique / Harold en Italie / 5 Overtures
Donals McInnes / Leonard Bernstein - OrNat de France / LSO - Andre Previn
2xCD | EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 706 MB | Full Artwork: 52 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: EMI "double fforte" # 7143 5 73338 2 5 | Country/Year: Europe 1999
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts (Requiem). Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works, and conducted several concerts with more than 1,000 musicians. He also composed around 50 songs. His influence was critical for the further development of Romanticism, especially in composers like Richard Wagner, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and many others.

Gershwin s Rhapsody in Blue is one of the most successful fusions of classical music and jazz ever, and is one of the most popular of all American concert works. Gershwin described the piece, which opens with an unforgettable two-and-a-half octave glissando wail on the clarinet, as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot… … our metropolitan madness.