Masur conducting San Francisco Symphony, Mendelssohn's "Scottish" Symphony, 13 January 2007

Kurt Masur (born 18 July 1927) is a German conductor, particularly noted for his interpretation of German Romantic music.

Biography[link]

Masur was born in Brieg, Lower Silesia, Germany (now Brzeg in Poland) and studied piano, composition and conducting in Leipzig, Saxony. Masur has been married three times. His second wife, with whom he had a daughter, died in 1972 in a car accident in which Masur was severely injured.^[1] He and his third wife, Tomoko Sakurai, have a son, Ken-David, a classical singer and conductor.^[2]

Conducting career[link]

Masur conducted the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra for three years ending in 1958 and again from 1967 to 1972. He also worked with the Komische Oper of East Berlin. In 1970, he became Kapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, serving in that post until 1996.

In 1991, Masur succeeded Zubin Mehta as music director of the New York Philharmonic (NYP). During his tenure, there were reports of tension between Masur and the NYP's Executive Director at the time, Deborah Borda, which eventually contributed to his contract not being renewed beyond 2002.^[3] In a television interview with Charlie Rose, Masur stated that regarding his leaving the NYP, "it was not my wish".^[4] The root of the problem was a fundamental discordance in status between the Americas and Germany regarding employed personalities of standing. In the former case, the hired beneficiary is expected "to report" to the benefactor, in the latter, he expects a free hand to execute his tasks as he feels best on account of his (to be) recognized experience. Masur stepped down as the NYP's Music Director in 2002, and was named its Music Director Emeritus, a new title created for him. The critical consensus is that Masur improved the playing of the orchestra compared to his more pliable and forbearing predecessor.^[5]

In 2000, Masur became principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), and held this position until 2007. In April 2002, Masur became music director of the Orchestre National de France, and served in this post until 2008,^[6] when he took the title of honorary music director of the ONF. On his 80th birthday, 18 July 2007, Masur conducted musicians from both orchestras at a Proms concert in London.^[7] His performances draw a wide range of reviews.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13]} Masur has appeared as a guest conductor with the world's leading orchestras, and holds the lifetime title of Honorary Guest Conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.^[14]

In February, 2012 Masur was scheduled to conduct Beethoven's 'Missa Solemnis' with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His participation was cancelled at the last minute, and John Oliver took his place. The cancellation was due to Maestro Masur's advancing Parkinson's Disease. In April 2012 he fell off the podium during a performance of Tchaikovsky's sixth symphony in Paris and was rushed to hospital^[15].

Political views[link]

For years, Masur was loyal to the GDR leadership. In 1982, he received the National Prize of East Germany. His attitude to the regime began to change in 1989, after the arrest of a street musician in Leipzig.^[16] On October 9, 1989, he intervened in anti-government demonstrations in Leipzig in communist East Germany. He negotiated an end to a confrontation that could have resulted in security forces attacking the protesters.^[17]

Awards[link]

A professor at the Leipzig Academy of Music since 1975, Masur has received numerous honors: In 1995, he received the Cross of the Order of Merits of the Federal Republic of Germany; in 1996 he received the Gold Medal of Honor for Music from the National Arts Club; in 1997 he received the titles of Commander of the Legion of Honor from the French government and New York City Cultural Ambassador from the City of New York; in April 1999 he received the Commander Cross of Merit of the Polish Republic; in March 2002, the President of Germany, Johannes Rau, awarded him the Cross with Star of the Order of Merits of the Federal Republic of Germany; in September 2007, the President of Germany, Horst Köhler, bestowed upon him the Great Cross of the Legion of Honor with Star and Ribbon; in September 2008, he received the Furtwängler Prize in Bonn, Germany. Masur is also an Honorary Citizen of his hometown Brieg.^[18] In 2001 Kurt Masur became an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music.^[19] In 2010, he received the Leo Baeck Medal (Leo Baeck Institute) for his humanitarian work promoting tolerance and social justice.^[20]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Kurt Masur official website
• Kurt Masur at Allmusic
• Kurt Masur at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with Kurt Masur by Bruce Duffie, June, 1988

Anne-Sophie Mutter
Background information
Born	(1963-06-29) June 29, 1963 (age 48) Rheinfelden, Germany
Genres	Classical
Occupations	Violinist
Instruments	Violin
Years active	1976–present
Website	www.anne-sophie-mutter.com
Notable instruments
Violin Emiliani Stradivarius 1703 Lord Dunn-Raven Stradivarius 1710 Mutter Regazzi 2005

Anne-Sophie Mutter (born June 29, 1963) is a German violinist. Supported early in her career by Herbert von Karajan, she has built a strong reputation for championing contemporary music with several works being composed specially for her including by Henri Dutilleux, Krzysztof Penderecki, Witold Lutosławski, Wolfgang Rihm and Sofia Gubaidulina.

Early life[link]

Mutter was born in Rheinfelden, Germany. She began playing the piano at the age of five, and shortly afterwards took up the violin, studying with Erna Honigberger, a pupil of Carl Flesch. After Honigberger's death she continued her studies with Aida Stucki at the Winterthur Conservatory.

Career[link]

After winning several prizes, she was exempted from school to dedicate herself to her art. When she was 13, conductor Herbert von Karajan invited her to play with the Berlin Philharmonic: she made her public debut on stage in 1976 at the Lucerne Festival, playing Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major.^[1] In 1977, she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival and with the English Chamber Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim. At 15, Mutter made her first recording of the Mozart Third and Fifth violin concerti with von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.

In 1980, she made her American debut with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. In 1985, at the age of 22, she was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (London) and head of its faculty of international violin studies^[2] and in 1986 an honorary member.^[3] In 1988, she made a grand tour of Canada and the United States, playing for the first time at Carnegie Hall. In 1998 she played and recorded for CD and DVD the complete set of Beethoven's Violin Sonatas, accompanied by Lambert Orkis; these were broadcast on television in many countries.

Repertoire[link]

Though her repertoire includes many classical works, Mutter is particularly known for her performances of contemporary music. A number of pieces have been specially written for or dedicated to her, including Henri Dutilleux's Sur le même accord, Krzysztof Penderecki's Second Violin Concerto, Witold Lutosławski's Chain 2 and the orchestral version of Partita, and Wolfgang Rihm's Gesungene Zeit ("Time Chant"), Lichtes Spiel, and Dyade. In August 2007, she premiered Sofia Gubaidulina's Violin Concerto No. 2 "In tempus praesens." She has received various prizes, including several Grammys. She also owns two Stradivarius violins (The Emiliani of 1703, and the Lord Dunn-Raven Stradivarius of 1710) and a Regazzi, dated 2005.^[4] After experimenting with a Menuhin-style shoulder rest, a little pillow, and a deer skin, Mutter has settled down to playing the violin with nothing between her and the violin. In addition, her need for the ideal traction with the violin has induced her to choose the same John Galliano sleeveless dress during her performances.^[5]

In October 2006, on French television, Mutter appeared to indicate that she would be retiring when she turned 45, in 2008.^[6] However the following month she said that her words were "misinterpreted" and that she would continue to play as long as she felt she could "bring anything new, anything important, anything different to music".^[7]

Personal life[link]

In 1989, Mutter married her first husband, Detlef Wunderlich, with whom she had two children, Arabella and Richard. Wunderlich died of cancer in 1995.^[8] She married the pianist and conductor André Previn in 2002.^[9]

On 21 August 2006, Mutter's office announced that she and Previn had divorced, although the couple were rumoured to have separated three months previously.^[10] They continue to work together.

Awards and recognition[link]

• Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:

• Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lambert Orkis for Beethoven: The Violin Sonatas (Nos. 1-3, Op. 12; Nos. 1-3, Op. 30; "Spring" Sonata) (2000)

• Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra):

• Anne-Sophie Mutter and André Previn (conductor) for Previn: Violin Concerto "Anne-Sophie"/Bernstein: Serenade (2005)
• Anne-Sophie Mutter, Krzysztof Penderecki (conductor) and the London Symphony Orchestra for Penderecki: Violin Concerto No. 2, Metamorphosen (1999)
• Anne-Sophie Mutter, James Levine (conductor) and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Berg: Violin Concerto/Rihm: Time Chant (1994)

• Sonning Award (2001; Denmark)
• Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, First Class
• Herbert von Karajan Music Prize (2003)^[11]
• Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2005)
• Victoires de la Musique Classique (2006)
• Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (2008)
• Doctor Honoris Causa from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (2010)^[12]
• Gustav-Adolf Prize (2011)^[13]

Partial discography[link]

On Deutsche Grammophon:

• Mozart Violin Concertos Nos. 3 & 5 (1978)
• Beethoven Triple Concerto (1980)
• Mendelssohn Violin Concerto/Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 (1981)
• Brahms Violin Concerto (1982)
• Brahms Double Concerto (1983)
• Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (1988)
• Lutosławski Partita & Chain 2/Stravinsky Violin Concerto (1988)
• Beethoven: The String Trios (1989)
• Bartok Violin Concerto No. 2/Moret En Rêve (1991)
• Berg Violin Concerto/Rihm Time Chant (1992)
• Carmen-Fantasie (1993)
• Romance (1995)
• Sibelius Violin Concerto (1995)
• The Berlin Recital (1996)
• Brahms Violin Concerto/Schumann Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra (1997)
• Penderecki Violin Concerto No. 2/Bartok Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 (1997)
• Beethoven The Violin Sonatas (1998)
• Vivaldi The Four Seasons (1999)
• Recital 2000 (2000)
• Lutosławski Partita for Violin and Orchestra/Chain 2 (2002)
• Beethoven Violin Concerto (2002)
• Tango Song and Dance (2003)
• Previn Violin Concerto/Bernstein Serenade (2003)
• Tchaikovsky & Korngold Violin Concertos (2004)
• Dutilleux Sur le même accord/Bartok Violin Concerto No. 2/Stravinsky Concerto en ré (2005)
• Mozart The Violin Concertos (2005)
• Mozart Piano Trios K502, K542, K548 (2006)
• Mozart The Violin Sonatas (August 2006)
• Simply Anne-Sophie (2006)
• Gubaidulina in tempus praesens (2008)
• Mendelssohn Violin Concerto (2009)
• Brahms Violin Sonatas (2010)
• Rihm: Lichtes Spiel; Currier: Time Machines (2011)
• The Complete Musician: Highlights (2011)
• Asm 35: The Complete Musician (2011)

On EMI Classics:

• Mozart Violin Concertos Nos. 2 & 4 (1982)
• Bach Violin Concertos/Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra (1983)
• Brahms Violin Sonatas (1983)
• Vivaldi The Four Seasons (1984)
• Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole/Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen (1985)
• Mozart Violin Concerto No. 1, Sinfonia Concertante (1991)
• Meditation: Vivaldi, Mozart, Massenet, Sarasate (1995)

On Erato:

• Glazunov Violin Concerto/Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 1 (1989)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Anne-Sophie Mutter Official Website
• Deutsche Grammophon Artist page
• Website celebrating her 35 years on the stage
• Profile at Wall Street Journal, 11/25/08
• Anne-Sophie Mutter: The Mozart Effect Is Not All In The Brain (It Is Also Soulfood)

André George Previn, KBE (born Andreas Ludwig Priwin; April 6, 1929^[1]) is a German-American pianist, conductor, and composer. He is considered one of the most versatile musicians in the world and is the winner of four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings.

Early life[link]

Previn was born in Berlin, Germany, the son of Charlotte (née Epstein) and Jack Previn, who was a lawyer, judge, and music teacher.^[2] He is said to be "a distant relative of" the composer Gustav Mahler.^[3] However, In a pre-concert public interview at the Lincoln Center, in May 2012, Previn laughed at the suggestion that he is related to Mahler. The year of his birth is uncertain. Whilst most published reports give 1929,^[1] Previn himself has stated that 1930 is his birth year.^[4] This situation is a consequence of his the family losing Previn's birth certificate when they left Germany in 1938.^{[citation needed]} His elder brother was director Steve Previn.^{[citation needed]} The Previn family, which was Jewish,^{[citation needed]} emigrated to the United States in 1939 to escape the Nazi regime in Germany.^{[citation needed]}

In 1939, his family moved to Los Angeles, where his great-uncle, Charles Previn, was music director of Universal Studios. André grew up in Los Angeles and became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1943. At Previn's 1946 graduation from Beverly Hills High School he played a musical duet with Richard M. Sherman; Previn played the piano, accompanying Sherman (who played flute). He first came to prominence by arranging and composing Hollywood film scores in 1948. Coincidentally, 21 years later, both composers won Oscars for different films, both winning in musical categories.

Work as a pianist[link]

In the mid-to-late 1950s, and more recently, Previn toured and recorded as a jazz pianist. In the 1950s, mainly recording for Contemporary Records, he worked with Shelly Manne, Leroy Vinnegar, Benny Carter, and others. An album he recorded with Manne and Vinnegar of songs from My Fair Lady was a best-seller (see My Fair Lady (Shelly Manne album)). As a solo jazz pianist, Previn largely devoted himself to interpreting the works of major songwriters such as Jerome Kern (recorded in 1959), Frederick Loewe, Vernon Duke (recorded in 1958), and Harold Arlen (recorded in 1960). Previn made two albums with Dinah Shore as arranger, conductor, and accompanist in 1960, and another, the unjustly neglected "Duet", with Doris Day in 1961. He made appearances on The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford as well as The Dinah Shore Chevy Show. He collaborated with Julie Andrews on a collection of Christmas carols in 1966, focusing on rarely heard carols. This popular album has been reissued many times over the years and is now available on CD. His main influences as a jazz pianist include Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, and Horace Silver. Previn has also recorded classical piano compositions by Mozart, Gershwin, Poulenc, Shostakovich, and others.

Work as a conductor[link]

In 1967, Previn succeeded John Barbirolli as music director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. In 1968, he began his tenure as principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO)^[5], serving in that post until 1979. During his LSO tenure, he and the LSO appeared on the BBC Television programme André Previn's Music Night. From 1976 to 1984, he was music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) and, in turn, had another television series with the PSO entitled Previn and the Pittsburgh. He was also principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from 1985 to 1988.

In 1985, he became music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Although Previn's tenure with the orchestra was musically satisfactory, other conductors including Kurt Sanderling, Simon Rattle, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, did a better job at selling out concerts. Previn clashed frequently with Ernest Fleischmann (the orchestra's Executive VP and General Manager), most notably when Fleischmann failed to consult him before naming Salonen as Principal Guest Conductor of the orchestra, complete with a tour of Japan. Because of Previn's objections, Salonen's title and Japanese tour were withdrawn; however, shortly thereafter, in April 1989, Previn resigned. Four months later, Salonen was named Music Director Designate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, officially taking the post of Music Director in October 1992.^[6]

Compositions[link]

Previn has composed film scores and other musical works, including concertos for piano, violin, cello, and guitar. He has also adapted and conducted the music for several films, some of them stage-to-film adaptations, such as My Fair Lady, Kismet, Porgy and Bess, and Paint Your Wagon. Several were written especially for film, including the Academy Award-winning Gigi. Several of the film scores were collaborations with his second wife, Dory Previn.

In later years, he has concentrated on composing classical music. He collaborated with Tom Stoppard on Every Good Boy Deserves Favour,^[7] a play with substantial musical content, which was first performed in London in 1977 with Previn conducting the LSO. His first opera, A Streetcar Named Desire, premiered at the San Francisco Opera in 1998. His second opera, Brief Encounter, based on the 1945 movie of the same name, was premiered at Houston Grand Opera on May 1, 2009. His numerous other classical works include vocal, chamber, and orchestral music.

Opera[link]

• A Streetcar Named Desire (1997, premiered in San Francisco in 1998)
• Brief Encounter (2007, premiered in Houston in 2009)

Theater[link]

• A Party with Betty Comden & Adolph Green (1958) – a revue with Previn as featured songwriter
• Coco (1969) – a musical with words by Alan Jay Lerner
• The Good Companions (1974) – a musical with a book by Ronald Harwood and lyrics by Johnny Mercer
• Incidental Music for Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1976) – a play for actors and orchestra with words by Tom Stoppard

Orchestral Music[link]

• Cello Concerto 1 (1960)
• Guitar Concerto (1971)
• Principals for Orchestra (1980)
• Piano Concerto (1984)
• Diversions for Orchestra (1999)
• Violin Concerto 1 “Anne-Sophie” (2001)
• Concerto for Violin, Double Bass and Orchestra (2004)
• Night Thoughts for Orchestra (2005)
• Harp Concerto (2007)
• Owls for Orchestra (2008)
• Concerto for Violin, Viola and Orchestra (2009)
• Cello Concerto 2 (2010)
• Violin Concerto 2 (2010)
• Triple Concerto for French Horn, Trumpet and Tuba (2012)

Chamber Music[link]

• Four Outings for Brass (1974)
• Peaches for Flute and Piano (1978)
• Triolet for Brass (1985)
• Trio 1 for Piano, Oboe and Bassoon (1985)
• A Wedding Waltz for 2 Oboes and Piano (1986)
• Cello Sonata (1993)
• Violin Sonata “Vineyard” (1994)
• Bassoon Sonata (1997)
• Trio 2 for Piano, Violin and Cello (2008)
• Octet for Eleven (2010)
• Clarinet Sonata (Prague, 2010)
• Clarinet Quintet (2011)

Piano Music[link]

• Paraphrase on a Theme of William Walton (1973)
• Matthew's Piano Book (10 pieces for students) (1979)
• Variations on a Theme by Haydn (1990)

Songs and Song Cycles[link]

• You’re Gonna Hear From Me (for ‘Inside Daisy Clover’) (1965)
• Gotta Get Off, Gonna Get (Theme from ‘Valley of the Dolls’) (1967)
• Five Philip Larkin Songs (1977)
• Song Cycle “Honey and Rue” (1992)
• Sallie Chisum Remembers Billy the Kid (1994)
• Four Toni Morrison Songs (1994)
• Three Emily Dickinson Songs (1999)
• Sieben Lieder (Seven Songs) (2006)

Film Scores[link]

Original Scores[link]

• Three Little Words (1950) — together with composer Harry Ruby
• The Girl Who Had Everything (1953)
• Bad Day at Black Rock (1954)
• It's Always Fair Weather (1955)
• The Subterraneans (1960)
• Elmer Gantry (1960)
• Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1961)
• Long Day's Journey into Night (1962)
• Two for the Seesaw (1962)
• Dead Ringer (1964)
• Inside Daisy Clover (1965)

Arrangement of Original Scores by Others[link]

• The Secret Garden (1949) — arrangement of Bronislau Kaper's music
• Gigi (1958) — arrangement of Loewe's music
• Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) — arrangement of Elmer Bernstein's music

Arrangement for Film of Stage Musical or Opera[link]

• Kiss Me, Kate (1953) — after Porter's musical
• Silk Stockings (1957) — after Porter's musical
• Porgy and Bess (1959) — after Gershwin's opera
• Bells Are Ringing (1960) — after Styne's musical
• My Fair Lady (1964) — after Loewe's musical
• Paint Your Wagon (1969) — after Loewe's musical
• Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) — after Webber's musical

Arrangement for Film of Music by Others[link]

• The Music Lovers (1970) — arrangement of Tchaikovsky's music
• Rollerball (1975) — arrangement of music by Bach, Shostakovich, and Tchaikovsky

Jazz[link]

• My Fair Lady (1956)
• Double Play! (1957)
• Pal Joey (1957)
• Gigi (1958)
• André Previn Plays Songs by Vernon Duke (1958)
• André Previn Plays Songs by Jerome Kern (1959)
• King Size! (1959)
• West Side Story (1959)
• Like Previn! (1960)
• André Previn Plays Songs by Harold Arlen (1960)
• Duet (1962)
• Nice Work if You Can Get It (1983) with Ella Fitzgerald
• After Hours (1989)
• Uptown (1990)
• Old Friends (1992)
• Kiri Sidetracks: The Jazz Album (1992)
• Alone: Ballads for Solo Piano (2007)

Recordings[link]

Previn's many recordings include the three ballets of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker), and the complete symphonies of Ralph Vaughan Williams, all with the LSO. With the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he made other recordings of music by Sergei Prokofiev (most notably, the Symphonies 1 and 5, the score to Alexander Nevsky, and the Symphony-Concerto for Cello & Orchestra with Heinrich Schiff as soloist), symphonies and other pieces by Antonín Dvořák, and works by contemporary composers including William Kraft, John Harbison, and Harold Shapero. His recordings of works by Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, William Walton, and Shostakovich have been particularly prized.

He has made jazz recordings in two periods of his career: in the 1950s and early 1960s and then again since the 1980s. With bassist David Finck he has recorded a collection of George Gershwin standards ("We Got Rhythm: Gershwin Songbook") and Duke Ellington classics ("We Got It Good & That Ain't Bad: an Ellington Songbook"), both on the Deutsche Grammophon label.

Television[link]

Previn became known to a broad public through his television work. In the United Kingdom he worked on TV with the London Symphony Orchestra. In the United States the TV show "Previn and the Pittsburgh" (1977) featured him in collaboration with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Previn is particularly remembered in Britain for his performance as "Mr. Andrew Preview" (or "Privet") on the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show in 1971, which involved his conducting a performance of Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto with Eric Morecambe as the comically inept soloist. At one point during the sketch "Mr Preview" accuses Eric Morecambe of playing all the wrong notes; Eric retorts that he has been playing "all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order".^[8] Because of other commitments the only time available for Previn to learn his part in the show was during a transatlantic flight but the talent he showed for comedy won high praise from his co-performers. At a concert with the Grieg Concerto in Britain afterwards, Previn had to pause the playing to allow the audience time to stop giggling as they remembered the sketch. Previn himself notes that people in Britain still recall the sketch years later: "Taxi drivers still call me Mr Preview".^[1]

Personal life[link]

Previn has been married five times. His first three marriages, to Betty Bennett (with whom he had two children), to Dory Langan, and then to Mia Farrow, kept him in the public eye. He is the father of Lovely Previn, who was violinist for the Irish band In Tua Nua. Previn and Farrow had three children together, twins Matthew and Sascha, born February 26, 1970, and Fletcher, born March 14, 1974. In 1973 and 1976, respectively, Previn and Farrow adopted Vietnamese infants Lark Song and Summer "Daisy" Song (born October 6, 1974). Lark died on Christmas Day of 2008.^[9] He is also the adoptive father of Soon-Yi Previn, who was adopted from Korea at age 8 (born October 8, 1970). After his fourth marriage (to Heather Sneddon in 1982, with whom he had one child) ended in 2002, Previn wed the German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, and later wrote a violin concerto for her. They divorced in 2006, but remain on amicable terms and have continued to work together in concerts.^[10][11] Previn wrote a memoir of his early years in Hollywood, No Minor Chords, which was published in 1991.

Awards and recognitions[link]

Previn has received a total of thirteen Academy Award nominations, winning in 1958, 1959, 1963 and 1964. He is one of few composers to accomplish the feat of winning back-to-back Oscars, and one of only two to do so on two occasions (the other being Alfred Newman). In 1970 he was nominated for a Tony Award as part of Coco's nomination for Best Musical. In 1977 he became an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music.^[12] The 1977 television show Previn and the Pittsburgh was nominated for three Emmy awards. Previn was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1996.^[13] (Not being a citizen of a Commonwealth Realm, he may use only the post-nominal letters KBE and not the title "Sir André".) Previn received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1998 in recognition of his contributions to classical music and opera in the United States. In 2005 he was awarded the international Glenn Gould Prize and in 2008 won Gramophone magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in classical, film, and jazz music.^[14] In 2010, the Recording Academy honored Previn with a Lifetime Achievement Grammy.

Academy Awards[link]

Best Music – Scoring of a Musical Picture

• 1958 Gigi
• 1959 Porgy & Bess

Best Score – Adaptation or Treatment

• 1963 Irma la Douce
• 1964 My Fair Lady

Grammy Awards[link]

Best Instrumental Soloist

• 2005 Previn: Violin Concerto; Bernstein: Serenade for Solo Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion

Best Classical Crossover Album

• 2003 Korngold: The Sea Hawk, Captain Blood with the London Symphony Orchestra

Best Chamber Music Performance

• 1999 American Scenes: Copland, Previn, Barber, Gershwin

Best Choral Performance

• 1974 William Walton: Belshazzar's Feast with the London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
• 1977 Rachmaninoff: The Bells with the London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus

Best Performance by an Orchestra

• 1960 Like Young with the David Rose Orchestra

Best Sound Track Album

• 1959 Gigi
• 1960 Porgy and Bess

Best Jazz Performance – Soloist or Small Group

• 1961 West Side Story
• 1962 Previn Plays Harold Arlen

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

Videos[link]

Lynn Harrell in 2005

Lynn Harrell (born January 30, 1944^[1]) is an American classical cellist.

Biography[link]

Harrell was born to musician parents in New York City: his father was the baritone Mack Harrell and his mother, Marjorie Fulton, was a violinist. At the age of eight, he decided to learn to play the cello. When Lynn was 12, his family moved to Dallas, Texas, where Lynn studied with Lev Aronson. After high school, he studied at the Juilliard School in New York and then at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. His influential cello teachers included Leonard Rose and Orlando Cole. He made his debut in 1961 playing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

While still a teenager, Harrell was orphaned. His father died of cancer in 1960 and then, two years later, his mother died in a car accident when Harrell was 17. "After that", as he has said, "I moved around to different family friends' houses with my one suitcase and cello until I was 18, when I joined the Cleveland Orchestra. In part, I got that job because [its conductor] George Szell knew my father through their collaboration at the Metropolitan Opera." Harrell was thereafter a cellist with the Cleveland Orchestra and its principal cellist from 1964 to 1971.

Harrell made his recital debut in New York in 1971, and since then has performed internationally as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with orchestras. He has been at several music schools and conservatories, including the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Aspen Music Festival, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Juilliard School. He served as the Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute from 1988–1992. From 1986–1993, he held the post of "Gregor Piatigorsky Endowed Chair in Violoncello" at the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles; he was only the second person to ever hold the title, following Piatigorsky himself. Most recently he was on the faculty of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University until his retirement in the spring of 2009. His wife is the violinist Helen Nightengale; they have two children, Hanna and Noah. He has twin children from his first marriage to the journalist and writer Linda Blandford—Kate, an actress and yoga teacher, and Eben, a journalist, both of whom live and work in London.

Lynn Harrell previously played a 1720 Montagnana cello he bought with the proceeds of his parents' estate and also a 1673 Antonio Stradivarius cello that belonged to the late British cellist Jacqueline du Pré. His current instrument is a 2008 cello by Christopher Dungey.

From 1985–1993 he held the International Chair for Cello Studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London and in 1993 he became Principal of the Royal Academy in London, a post he held through 1995.

On April 7, 1994, he appeared at the Vatican with the Royal Philharmonic conducted by Gilbert Levine in a concert dedicated to the memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. The audience for this historic event, which was the Vatican's first official commemoration of the Holocaust, included Pope John Paul II and the Chief Rabbi of Rome.

In 2001, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra established the Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition in his honor. The competition's mission is to identify and encourage the highest level of young musical talent in the South Central United States. The competition is open to string players and pianists, aged 18 and under, from Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

Awards and recognitions[link]

• Piatigorsky Award
• Ford Foundation Concert Artists' Award
• The inaugural Avery Fisher Prize (jointly with Murray Perahia).

Grammy Awards for Best Chamber Music Performance:

• Vladimir Ashkenazy, Lynn Harrell & Itzhak Perlman for Beethoven: The Complete Piano Trios (1988)
• Vladimir Ashkenazy, Lynn Harrell & Itzhak Perlman for Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio in A minor (1982)

References[link]

1. ^ Lynn Harrell at Answers.com

External links[link]

• Faculty bio at the Shepherd School of Music
• Conversation with Lynn Harrell
• Flying Inkpot Conversation with Harrell
• There's always room for cello. Lynn's blog, starting 9/1/2009

Richard Wagner in 1871

Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( /ˈvɑːɡnər/; German pronunciation: [ˈʁiçaʁt ˈvaːɡnɐ]; 22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, conductor, theatre director and polemicist primarily known for his operas (or "music dramas", as he later called them). Wagner's compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complex texture, rich harmonies and orchestration, and the elaborate use of leitmotifs: musical themes associated with individual characters, places, ideas or plot elements. Unlike most other opera composers, Wagner wrote both the music and libretto for every one of his stage works. Perhaps the two best-known extracts from his works are the Ride of the Valkyries from the opera Die Walküre, and the Wedding March (Bridal Chorus) from the opera Lohengrin.

Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works such as The Flying Dutchman and Tannhäuser which were broadly in the romantic vein of Weber and Meyerbeer, Wagner transformed operatic thought through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"). This would achieve the synthesis of all the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts and was announced in a series of essays between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realized this concept most fully in the first half of the monumental four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. However, his thoughts on the relative importance of music and drama were to change again, and he reintroduced some traditional operatic forms into his last few stage works, including Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

Wagner pioneered advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, which greatly influenced the development of European classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music. Wagner's influence spread beyond music into philosophy, literature, the visual arts and theatre. He had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which contained many novel design features. It was here that the Ring and Parsifal received their premieres and where his most important stage works continue to be performed today in an annual festival run by his descendants. Wagner's views on conducting were also highly influential. His extensive writings on music, drama and politics have all attracted extensive comment in recent decades, especially where they have antisemitic content.

Wagner achieved all of this despite a life characterized, until his last decades, by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty and repeated flight from his creditors. His pugnacious personality and often outspoken views on music, politics and society made him a controversial figure during his life, which he remains to this day. The effect of his ideas can be traced in many of the arts throughout the twentieth century.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Wagner's birthplace, Brühl (Leipzig)

Richard Wagner was born at No. 3 ('The House of the Red and White Lions'), the Brühl, in the Jewish quarter of Leipzig, the ninth child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service,^[1] and his wife Johanna Rosine (née Paetz), the daughter of a baker.^[2] Wagner's father died of typhus six months after Richard's birth, following which Wagner's mother began living with the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer, a friend of Richard's father.^[3] In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married – although no documentation of this is found in the Leipzig church registers.^[4] She and her family moved to Geyer's residence in Dresden. Until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly suspected that Geyer was his natural father.^[5]

Geyer's love of the theatre was shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography, Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel.^[6] The boy Wagner was also hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Weber's Der Freischütz. In late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzel's school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher.^[7] He could not manage a proper scale but preferred playing theatre overtures by ear. Geyer died in 1821, when Richard was eight. Subsequently, Wagner was sent to the Kreuz Grammar School in Dresden, paid for by Geyer's brother.^[8] The young Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright, his first creative effort (listed as 'WWV 1') being a tragedy, Leubald, begun at school in 1826, which was strongly influenced by Shakespeare and Goethe. Wagner was determined to set it to music; he persuaded his family to allow him music lessons.^[9]

By 1827, the family had moved back to Leipzig. Wagner's first lessons in harmony were taken in 1828–1831 with Christian Gottlieb Müller.^[10] In January 1828 he first heard Beethoven's 7th Symphony and then, in March, Beethoven's 9th Symphony performed in the Gewandhaus. Beethoven became his inspiration, and Wagner wrote a piano transcription of the 9th Symphony.^[11] He was also greatly impressed by a performance of Mozart's Requiem.^[12] From this period date Wagner's early piano sonatas and his first attempts at orchestral overtures.^[13]

In 1829 he saw the dramatic soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient on stage, and she became his ideal of the fusion of drama and music in opera. In his autobiography, Wagner wrote, "If I look back on my life as a whole, I can find no event that produced so profound an impression upon me." Wagner claimed to have seen Schröder-Devrient in the title role of Fidelio; however, it seems more likely that he saw her performance as Romeo in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi.^[14]

Wilhelmine "Minna" Planer (1835), by Alexander von Otterstedt

He enrolled at the University of Leipzig in 1831 where he became a member of the Studentenverbindung Corps Saxonia Leipzig. He also took composition lessons with the cantor of Saint Thomas Church, Christian Theodor Weinlig.^[15] Weinlig was so impressed with Wagner's musical ability that he refused any payment for his lessons, and arranged for Wagner's Piano Sonata in B flat (which was consequently dedicated to him) to be published as the composer's Op. 1. A year later, Wagner composed his Symphony in C major, a Beethovenesque work performed in Prague in 1832 ^[16] and at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1833.^[17] He then began to work on an opera, Die Hochzeit (The Wedding), which he never completed.^[18]

Early career[link]

In 1833, Wagner's older brother Karl Albert managed to obtain for Richard a position as choir master in Würzburg.^[19] In the same year, at the age of 20, Wagner composed his first complete opera, Die Feen (The Fairies). This opera, which clearly imitated the style of Carl Maria von Weber, would go unproduced until half a century later, when it was premiered in Munich shortly after the composer's death in 1883.^[20]

Meanwhile, Wagner held a brief appointment as musical director at the opera house in Magdeburg^[21] during which he wrote Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love), based on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. This was staged at Magdeburg in 1836, but closed before the second performance, leaving the composer (not for the last time) in serious financial difficulties.^[22] In 1834 Wagner had fallen for the actress Christine Wilhelmine "Minna" Planer. After the disaster of Das Liebesverbot he followed her to Königsberg where she helped him to get an engagement at the theatre.^[23] The two married in Königsberg on 24 November 1836.^[24] In June 1837 Wagner moved to Riga (then in the Russian Empire), where he became music director of the local opera.^[25] Minna had recently left Wagner for another man^[26] but Richard took her back;^[27] this was but the first débâcle of a troubled marriage that would end in misery three decades later.

By 1839, the couple had amassed such large debts that they fled Riga to escape from creditors;^[28] debt would plague Wagner for most of his life.^[29] During their flight, they and their Newfoundland dog Robber took a stormy sea passage to London,^[30] from which Wagner drew the inspiration for The Flying Dutchman (with a story based on a sketch by Heinrich Heine).^[31]

The Wagners spent 1839 to 1842 in Paris, where Richard made a scant living writing articles and arranging operas by other composers, largely on behalf of the Schlesinger publishing house. However, he also completed his third and fourth operas Rienzi and The Flying Dutchman during this stay.^[32] His relief on leaving Paris for Dresden was recorded in his "Autobiographic Sketch" of 1842, "For the first time I saw the Rhine  — with hot tears in my eyes, I, poor artist, swore eternal fidelity to my German fatherland."^[33]

Dresden[link]

Warrant for the arrest of Richard Wagner, issued on 16 May 1849

Wagner had completed writing Rienzi in 1840. Largely through the strong support of Giacomo Meyerbeer,^[34] it was accepted for performance by the Dresden Court Theatre (Hofoper) in the German state of Saxony. In 1842, Wagner moved to Dresden, where Rienzi was staged to considerable acclaim on 20 October.^[35] Wagner lived in Dresden for the next six years, eventually being appointed the Royal Saxon Court Conductor.^[36] During this period, he staged there The Flying Dutchman (2 January 1843)^[37] and Tannhäuser (19 October 1845),^[38] the first two of his three middle-period operas. Wagner also mixed with artistic circles in Dresden, including the composer Ferdinand Hiller and the architect Gottfried Semper.^[39]