CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Orchestra of St. Luke's

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Sunday, April 26th, 2009 at 2:00 PM

“Previn is a masterful storyteller.”—Associated Press

Carnegie Hall’s 80th-birthday tribute to André Previn continues when he joins a star-studded group of friends for this all-Previn concert. Composed to highlight the velvet voice of soprano Renée Fleming, The Giraffes Go to Hamburg is a strikingly moving vocal portrait inspired by Isak Dinesen’s hit novel Out of Africa. Along with arias from Previn’s lyrical opera A Streetcar Named Desire, the program features a new concerto for violin, viola, and orchestra, as well as Previn’s tuneful portrait of violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter.

Orchestra of St. Luke's
André Previn, Conductor and Pianist
Renée Fleming, Soprano
Anne-Sophie Mutter, Violin
Yuri Bashmet, Viola

PREVIN The Giraffes Go to Hamburg
PREVIN Concerto for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra
PREVIN Arias from A Streetcar Named Desire
·· I Want Magic
·· I Can Smell the Sea Air
PREVIN Violin Concerto, "Anne-Sophie"

Saluting André Previn at 80

Program Notes:

ANDRÉ PREVIN (b. 1929)

André Previn has led a life that covers an extraordinarily wide range of musical activities. His talent became evident early on, playing piano duets with his father, then studying (from age six) at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. The Nazi regime impelled his family to Paris in 1938; there he continued his studies with Marcel Dupré at the Conservatoire. The following year they moved to Los Angeles because a cousin was music director for Universal Studios in Hollywood. There young André studied theory with Max Rabinowitsch and Ernst Toch and composition with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

The family connection with the world of films led him naturally into conducting and composing for Hollywood productions. He began orchestrating for films while still in high school and soon after graduation was appointed one of MGM’s music directors. Also successful as a jazz pianist, he studied conducting formally with Pierre Monteux in the early 1950s.

While conducting for musical films (winning Oscars for his work on Gigi, Porgy and Bess, Irma la Douce, and My Fair Lady), Previn began to pursue a concert career. Leaving Hollywood, he became a symphony conductor, with music directorships in Houston, London, Los Angeles, and Pittsburgh.

During the period of his busiest work as conductor and music director, Previn stopped playing jazz for nearly a quarter-century, though he returned to it about two decades ago and began performing and recording again, while also continuing appearances as a classical pianist, especially in chamber music.

He continued composing all this time, for Broadway (Coco, 1969), the theater (Tom Stoppard’s “play for actors and orchestra” Every Good Boy Deserves Favour), and the concert hall (Symphony for Strings, 1962; concertos for cello [1968], guitar [1971], and piano [1985]). His background in jazz and film music gives him an unusually wide range of musical skills and interests, and these often appear fused in work that evokes the eclecticism of the melting pot. Recent works include his orchestral song cycle Honey and Rue; settings of poems of Toni Morrison (for Kathleen Battle); a cello sonata (for Yo-Yo Ma); and Miss Sallie Chisum Remembers Billy the Kid (for Barbara Bonney). His largest work to date was the opera A Streetcar Named Desire.

Previn creates his concert music with particular artists in mind. “I’m very bad at writing into the void,” he explained in a recent interview. This approach has been evident, certainly, in his recent vocal music for Renée Fleming, for whom he created the role of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, and for whom he has continued to compose regularly. “She does me the great honor of liking what I write for her.”


The Giraffes Go to Hamburg, for Soprano, Alto Flute, and Piano

Performance time: approximately 12 minutes

Composed in 2000, The Giraffes Go to Hamburg was premiered on May 3 of that year at the New Jersey Arts Center, Newark, with soprano Renée Fleming, flutist Renée Siebert, and the composer; this afternoon’s performance marks the work’s Carnegie Hall premiere.


The Giraffes Go to Hamburg sets a passage from Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (pen name of Karen Blixen), the author’s account of her attempt to run a coffee plantation in Kenya. The book (made into a successful film in 1985) remains a vivid account of life in Africa between the world wars, when Kenya was still a British colony.

“I’m a great fan of Dinesen’s,” Previn explained. “The text was recommended to me, and when I read the words, it moved me deeply. It is not a song. It’s more of a scena.” Indeed, as in an operatic scena, The Giraffes Go to Hamburg is a poignant work about the loss of freedom and the start of an unimaginable life in close captivity as the author and composer intuit the sensations of the quiet, beautiful animals entering a world they cannot imagine.


Concerto for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra
Solo violin and viola 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes and English horn, 2 clarinets and bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones and bass trombone, tuba, timpani, 2 percussionists, harp, and strings

Performance time: approximately 20 minutes

Composed in 2006 for Anne-Sophie Mutter and Yuri Bashmet, the Concerto recives its world premiere at this afternoon’s performance.


The new Double Concerto for violin and viola is another example of Previn’s predilection for composing for specific performers. The pair of solo instruments recalls the most famous earlier example of a work for violin and viola—Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante, K. 364, a rare combination: Most concertos for two diverse stringed instruments are for violin and cello.

The impetus for this work was a commission of sorts from Anne-Sophie Mutter, for whom Previn had already written his Violin Concerto. “To me,” he explains, “the word ‘commission’ entails a date for a performance, not necessarily money. Anne-Sophie had been on a Mozart tour where she and Yuri did the Mozart Sinfonia concertante. She mentioned to me that there are very few works like that and said, ‘Perhaps you could write one.’ So I did.”

Previn does not much like talking about his music in any kind of descriptive way. He simply mentions that the concerto is in three movements with a modest orchestra and no exotic instruments. “I don’t like to offer an analysis. It’s undeniable that I’m a very conservative writer, unabashedly romantic.”


“I Want Magic” and “I Can Smell the Sea Air,” from A Streetcar Named Desire 
[Scoring TK]

Performance time for both arias: approximately 8 minutes

Composed in 1997 to a libretto by Philip Littell after the play by Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire received its world premiere at the San Francisco Opera on September 19, 1998. “I Want Magic” received its first Carnegie Hall performance in Weill Recital Hall on March 24, 2001, with Julia Hunt, soprano, and Mara Waldman, piano; this afternoon’s performance marks the Carnegie Hall premiere of “I Can Smell the Sea Air.”


Lotfi Mansouri, then manager of the San Francisco opera, telephoned Previn in 1994 with the proposal that he write an opera based on one of Tennessee Williams’s most famous plays. Previn was immediately interested in the prospect of putting the operatically intense emotions of Streetcar onto the lyric stage. In choosing the cast for which he would write the music, he told Richard Dyer, “Renée Fleming was a given for Blanche.” The world premiere in September 1998 was followed three months later by a nationwide broadcast on PBS. Since then it has become one of the most frequently performed of contemporary operas.

From the very beginning, Blanche’s act three arias have been noted by audiences and critics. “I Want Magic!,” from Act III, is her response to the request of Mitch to get a good look at her once in a strong light, to see her as she really is—though reality is precisely what Blanche cannot face. “I Can Smell the Sea Air,” from the opera’s closing scene, is an expression of Blanche’s retreat into utter unreality, as the doctor comes to take her to the mental hospital.


Violin Concerto, “Anne-Sophie”
Scoring: solo violin, 3 flutes (third doubling piccolo), 2 oboes and English horn, 2 clarinets and bass clarinet, 2 bassoons and contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, percussion for 2 players, celesta, harp, and strings

Performance time: approximately 38 minutes

Composed in 2001 for Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Violin Concerto received its world premiere on March 14, 2002, with André Previn, Ms. Mutter, and the BSO; the concerto was first performed at Carnegie Hall on March 9, 2005, with Ms. Mutter as soloist and Mr. Previn conducting the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.


For a Boston Symphony commission, Previn chose to create a violin concerto for Anne-Sophie Mutter, for whom he had already written Tango, Song, and Dance to perform with her in recital. His admiration of her playing was well known. The pair married five months after the premiere of the Violin Concerto, so it is easy to hear the romantic and lyrical score as a kind of musical valentine to a superb artist and beloved partner. Though the concerto is not without its virtuosic elements, none of the movements is predominantly fast and none exists primarily for show.

Lyricism predominates particularly in the lush first movement, with occasional outbursts of passionate temperament. The second movement suggests a barren landscape, an emptiness that occasionally warms into life, but dark and worrisome with more acidulous harmonies.

The last movement calls for special comment. It bears an epigraph from T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets:

We shall not cease from exploration.
And the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time.

These lines draw attention to the conception referred to in the movement’s subtitle: “From a train in Germany.” On a train ride that Previn took in Germany in November 1999, he telephoned his friend Ronald Wilford, the artist-manager in New York, to wish him a happy birthday. Some days later, Wilford suggested that the new work should in some way reflect the journey that the composer was taking—a journey, so to speak, back into his own past. Previn decided to include a German children’s song in the finale of the concerto. Mutter suggested one that he remembered from his own childhood—“Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär’…” (“If I were a little bird and had two wings, I would fly to you”) —which became the basis for a set of variations on the song. The finale concludes a highly personal work that expresses connections, friendships, and loves that go back to Previn’s earliest days and continue right up to the moment of composition and beyond.

© 2009 Steven Ledbetter

Steven Ledbetter, musicologist and program annotator of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1979 to 1998, writes and lectures widely
on many aspects of classical music.

Orchestra of St. Luke's
André Previn, Conductor and Pianist
Conductor, composer, and pianist André Previn has received, for his outstanding musical accomplishments, the Austrian and German Cross of Merit, the Kennedy Center’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998, the honor of Musical America’s Musician of the Year in 1999, and the Glenn Gould Prize in Toronto in 2006; in addition, he was knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1996. In May 2008, he was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award of the London Symphony Orchestra. In September 2008, he received the Classic FM Gramophone Lifetime Achievement Award.

Mr. Previn has received several Grammy Awards, most recently in 2005 for the recordings of his Violin Concerto, “Anne-Sophie,” and Bernstein’s Serenade featuring Anne-Sophie Mutter with the Boston and London symphony orchestras. His first opera, A Streetcar Named Desire, was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque.

A frequent guest with the world’s major orchestras—in concert and on recordings—Mr. Previn has worked frequently with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New York and Vienna philharmonics. In addition, he has held the chief artistic posts with the Houston and Pittsburgh symphonies, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Los Angeles and Royal philharmonics.
Recent highlights include works recorded by the Vienna Philharmonic and Renée Fleming, the premiere of his Double Concerto for Violin and Double Bass for Anne-Sophie Mutter and Roman Patkoló by the Boston Symphony Orchestra; the premiere of his piano trio at Carnegie Hall earlier this month; and the premiere of his Concerto for Violin and Viola by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s with Ms. Mutter and Yuri Bashmet. Mr. Previn’s second opera, Brief Encounter, a commission from the Houston Grand Opera, will be premiered in May 2009.

In addition to concerts celebrating his 80th birthday at Carnegie Hall this spring, other highlights of Mr. Previn’s current season include concerts with the NHK, London, and Boston symphony orchestras; Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; and concerts this summer in Tanglewood with the BSO. In celebration of his 80th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, and EMI Records will each release compilations of his works.

André Previn records for Deutsche Grammophon. His concert music is published by G. Schirmer, Inc., and Chester Music Ltd.

Renée Fleming, Soprano
As “the people’s diva,” renowned soprano Renée Fleming continues to charm audiences throughout the world with her superb vocal intelligence, exquisite musical grace, and voice of “liquid gold.” Her artistry has taken her to the world’s capitals and great opera houses, captivating audiences everywhere she goes.

On September 22, 2008, the Metropolitan Opera celebrated Ms. Fleming in its Opening Night Gala. Her additional appearances at the Metropolitan Opera this season include Massenet’s Thaïs and Dvořák’s Rusalka. Later this season, she appears in La traviata at Covent Garden.

In fall 2008, Coty launched La Voce by Renée Fleming, her first-ever fragrance with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Metropolitan Opera. In addition to this honor, Ms. Fleming has had The Renée Fleming Iris named after her and replicated in porcelain by Boehm, as well as a dessert, La Diva Renée, by famed chef Daniel Boulud.

A two-time Grammy winner, Ms. Fleming’s most recent CD is Strauss: Four Last Songs, conducted by Christian Thielemann, and she is the author of The Inner Voice, an intimate account of her career and creative process. Among her numerous awards are Sweden’s Polar Prize (2008), the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by the French government (2005), Honorary Membership in the Royal Academy of Music (2003), and a 2003 honorary doctorate from The Juilliard School, where she was also commencement speaker.

Anne-Sophie Mutter, Violin
Since her debut at the Lucerne Festival in 1976, Anne-Sophie Mutter has continuously circled the world performing as one of the greatest violin virtuosos of our time. The past year was filled with concerts on four continents: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Berliner Philharmoniker on a European tour; Brahms violin sonatas with pianist Lambert Orkis in the US; Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Bach’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Trondheim Soloists in Asia; Beethoven’s string trios with violist Yuri Bashmet and cellist Lynn Harrell in Baden-Baden, Madrid, and Stuttgart; and the Bach violin concertos with Camerata Salzburg in the US.

Ms. Mutter performed the French premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Violin Concerto, “In tempus praesens,” with the Orchestre National de France and Kurt Masur, and performed the European premiere of Sir André Previn’s Concerto for Violin, Contrabass, and Orchestra with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Much of Ms. Mutter’s 2009 activity focuses on the Deutsche Grammophon recording and DVD celebrating the Mendelssohn bicentennial, including his Violin Concerto, Sonata No. 1 and Piano Trio No. 1. She will present the American premiere of the Gubaidulina Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony and will celebrate André Previn’s 80th birthday with performances in Carnegie Hall premiering his piano trio and presenting two of his concertos, written for her.

Ms. Mutter’s many awards include the Grand Prix du Disque and several Grammies. Her recent DG recording pairs the Gubaidulina Violin Concerto, (London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev) and Bach’s violin concertos (Trondheim Soloists). The composers Sebastian Currier, Henri Dutilleux, Sofia Gubaidulina, Witold Lutosławski, Norbert Moret, Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir André Previn, and Wolfgang Rihm have all dedicated works to her.

In 2008, Ms. Mutter performed benefit concerts for the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Orchestra Academy, the Beethoven House in Bonn, and Classical Action “Artists against AIDS.” She also donated part of her fees to earthquake relief in Sichuan, China.

Ms. Mutter has received the International Ernst von Siemens Music Prize; the Order of Merit of the German Federal Republic, First Class; the Bavarian Order of Merit; the Austrian Order of Merit for Service; and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Yuri Bashmet, Viola
Through his virtuosity, strength of personality, and high intelligence, Yuri Bashmet has given the viola a new prominence in musical life and has motivated the leading composers of our time to expand the repertoire with significant new music. Artistic Director of the December Evenings festival in Moscow, Founder and Director of the Moscow Soloists, and Principal Conductor of the newly formed Symphony Orchestra of New Russia, he appears throughout the world as conductor and soloist.

Born in 1953 in Russia, Ms. Bashmet studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Vadim Borisovsky (of the Beethoven Quartet) and Feodor Druzhinin. In 1976 he won the International Viola Competition in Munich and has since appeared with the New York, London, Berlin, and Vienna philharmonics; Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Boston, Chicago, and Montreal symphonies; and the London Symphony Orchestra, which presented its own Yuri Bashmet Festival. He has appeared as conductor-soloist with the Tokyo, Brussels, Dresden, and Royal Liverpool philharmonics; Camerata Salzburg; Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; and Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

Mr. Bashmet has enjoyed strong relationships with composers, particularly Sofia Gubaidulina and Alfred Schnittke (whose Viola Concerto, written for him, is now firmly established in the repertoire). He premiered Kancheli’s Styx, Tavener’s The Myrrh Bearer, and Turnage’s On Opened Ground—all written for him, as were concertos by Poul Ruders, Alexander Tchaikovsky, and Alexander Raskatov.

In chamber music Mr. Bashmet’s collaborators have included Gidon Kremer, Mstislav Rostropovich, and the Borodin Quartet, among others. He tours as part of a trio with mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

Mr. Bashmet has recorded, for Deutsche Grammophon, the Gubaidulina Concerto and Kancheli’s Styx, winner of a Diapason d’Or award and a Grammy nomination. Other notable DG discs are Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante with Mutter; Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 1 with Argerich, Kremer, and Maisky; and the recently released Bartók Concerto with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Pierre Boulez. For Onyx he and the Moscow Soloists have embarked on a critically acclaimed series of recordings including chamber symphonies by Shostakovich, Sviridoc, and Vainberg and music by Stravinsky and Prokofiev, which received a Grammy award.

Mr. Bashmet plays a 1758 Testore viola.