PSO musicians mourn ‘genius’ musician Andre Previn
When Harold Smoliar was getting married, his friend and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra boss, Andre Previn, asked what he wanted as a wedding present.
“Well, my wife’s an oboist just like me,” said Mr. Smoliar, the PSO’s principal English horn player. He told the music director: “‘Why don’t you write a piece we can play together?’ And he did. It’s called ‘A Wedding Waltz for Two Oboes and a Piano.’ And it’s a lovely little waltz — it includes a fight, because he said all married couples fight — but they make up in the end. It’s a two- or threeminute piece, but it’s just very sweet.”
Mr. Smoliar was among those sharing memories Thursday and Friday of former PSO music director Andre Previn. Mr. Previn, 89, died Thursday at his home in New York.
“Previn was a musical genius, a revolutionary figure who came to Pittsburgh and launched the symphony into a remarkable new era of international acclaim,” Melia Tourangeau, president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, said in a statement. “We extend our deepest sympathies to his family, friends, and all who enjoyed his music around the world.”
“I was very fortunate to have worked with him, and I do believe he is, was, a genius,” said Mr. Smoliar, who shared a love of jazz with the PSO music conductor. “He was a very enjoyable guy just to hang out with, and he cared about the orchestra and the people in the orchestra.”
When Mr. Previn took over the Pittsburgh Symphony in September 1976, the orchestra was in a crisis, recalled Robert Croan, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette music writer at the time. The previous music director, William Steinberg, had been ill for several years “and the level of playing had declined, media coverage had dropped and morale was at an all-time low.”
Mr. Previn’s arrival turned out to be a shot in the arm for the orchestra. He told Robert Moir, the PSO’s former vice president for artistic planning, “When I arrived for the first rehearsal, the musicians were tuning and doing the thing with the reeds and all that. And I suddenly had a moment of absolute pleasure. I thought, ‘That’s my orchestra. They’re tuning for me.’ I couldn’t get over it. It was so wonderful.”
He ushered in a new era that included a boost in fundraising and a higher profile, with WQED’s nationally televised series “Previn and the Pittsburgh.”
Patricia Prattis Jennings, 77, was the principal pianist during Mr. Previn’s eight years with the PSO. “I was different from the rest of the orchestra because he gave me these extraordinary opportunities, because I was a pianist,” she said.
That first concert for the WQED series had Mr. Previn playing with Ms. Jennings on Mozart’s sonatas for four hands, and they paired again on Concerto for Two Pianos for the opening concert of the second season. She also was heard on the PSO recording “Carnival of the
Animals” that included pianist Joseph Villa and cellist Anne Martindale Williams, who was hired during Mr. Previn’s tenure.
“I never knew whether he found it a good idea to put this young African-American female up front to demonstrate that the orchestra had a broad outlook,” Ms. Jennings said. “We never talked about it, it never came up, it was just, I was there, I was a pianist, he thought I was talented, but I also happened to be AfricanAmerican.”
From a critic’s point of view, Mr. Croan noted that “Previn quickly cleaned up many of the orchestra’s technical problems, and brought a new aura of glamour from his Hollywood connections and notoriety.”
“He was an extraordinarily talented fellow — he was a wonderful classical pianist, yet he was a wonderful jazz pianist. He composed operas. … He had it all, sort of like Leonard Bernstein,” Ms. Jennings said.
She described Mr. Previn’s predecessor, Mr. Steinberg, as “a wonderful oldstyle European conductor.”
“When Andre Previn arrived,” she continued, “all of a sudden Pittsburgh had some glamour. He was from Hollywood, he was married to a movie star [Mia Farrow], so it gave Pittsburgh a little cache to have Andre Previn as its music director.”
Musically, Mr. Previn “was especially successful with the French Impressionists, Gershwin and some modern repertory, although his tastes were fairly conservative,” Mr. Croan said, also noting that the conductor was criticized for “superficial interpretations of the classics and, justly or unjustly, for his association with jazz and film music — a subject over which he became increasingly defensive.”
Gene Kelly’s widow, Patricia Ward Kelly, wrote on Facebook, “Another major loss today with the death of Andre Previn. When Gene spoke with me about Previn, he said, ‘I’ve always loved his scores. One of my favorite songs that I’ve ever done was the one I did in “It’s Always Fair Weather” on skates — “Can It Be I Like Myself?” It’s a charming song.’ It is, indeed.”
Mr. Smoliar and Ms. Jennings both noted that Mr. Previn was a great jazz pianist, among his talents.
Mr. Smoliar said it was “an honor” to have played a Previn piece commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra for the principal English horn and cellist, “and then we performed that piece here, with him conducting, after the premiere in Philadelphia. That was pretty cool.”
“Andre was an amazing musician, sharp mind and wit, and had a great talent for putting people at ease,” said Kathleen Butera, using as an example the installment of “Previn and the Pittsburgh” in which he gets Ella Fitzgerald to tap dance. “At that time I was director of educational activities at Pittsburgh Symphony. He was very supportive of my work, like taking time to meet with students at breakfast as part of a conducting seminar for high school students.”
In April 1984, Mr. Previn announced that he would leave Pittsburgh to accept the directorship of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the following month he requested to be relieved of the remainder of his existing contract. Lorin Maazel signed on as a “music consultant” and became PSO music director in 1987.
Over the years since Mr. Previn left Pittsburgh, he and his former jazz collaborator and principal English horn player kept in touch.
The last time was last summer, when he and Mr. Smoliar exchanged letters.
“I’m on leave this year, and I’m not coming back — I’m retiring — so I wrote him a letter to thank him for giving me my job. … He was my first boss here,” Mr. Smoliar said, “and I wanted to thank him for it. He wrote a very sweet note back. He was just a great guy.”