Biography (read more)
André Previn was born Andreas Ludwig Priwin in Berlin on 6 April 1929, fled with his Jewish family to Los Angeles, and before twenty was arranging and composing for MGM — the first of three careers. Hollywood brought him four Academy Awards; jazz made him a celebrated trio pianist and accompanist; classical music, from the 1960s onward, made him music director of the London Symphony, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles orchestras, and finally a composer. He died on 28 February 2019.
Previn appears in this catalogue in the second of his three lives: the pianist. His jazz-inflected touch and chamber recordings — Mozart and Gershwin concertos directed from the keyboard, songbook sessions, sonata partnerships — carry a rhythmic ease that few classically-trained pianists match, and set a distinct pole in any comparison: the reading that swings.
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