Welcome
News of André Previn’s death broke the evening we went to press with this issue. Previn was the most incandescent of musical stars – a musician whose prodigious talent touched just about every genre: a brilliant jazz pianist in the mould of Oscar Peterson; an Oscarwinning film score composer; a classical pianist of exceptional skill; a conductor whose repertoire expertise knew no bounds (he was a fervent champion of British 20th-century music, for instance). And that’s not even mentioning his extraordinary flair for communication. Coincidentally, Previn features this month as our Building a Library choice for his blistering performance, as pianist and conductor, of Gershwin’s Piano Concerto (p118). There’s a Previn link in our celebration of film themes, too (p50) – our online poll with Radiotimes.com in February crowned John Williams’s Star Wars theme as the greatest ever, a score that Previn persuaded the LSO to record back in 1977.
We’ll be running a full tribute to André Previn next month, but in the meantime, we’d love to read your memories of seeing Previn conduct, perform or entertain (email music@classical-music.com). You can also head over to our Facebook group, The Listening Room, where you can share and discuss your musical discoveries with us and hundreds of others, including the BBC Music Magazine editorial team.