Review: André Previn--The (Nearly) Complete Warner Recordings

Thanks for this focus on André Previn's body of work. I've long been a fan of his, especially his amazing versatility. Looking forward to your take on his orchestral recordings (because I haven't watched it yet)!

Dave thanks again for a splendidly entertaining and informative review

Excellent review! I was struck by how many of these recordings I already have, and how very good they are. With so few out-and-out duds in nearly a hundred CDs, that's pretty impressive by any standards.

I enjoy your video's very much. I enjoy your music recordings knowledge very much. But mostly I enjoy your humor.

Thank you very much for the coverage of what appears to be a really marvelous set. I will start tracking down the discs which most appeal to me. Please don’t fret over the length of you videos…they can’t be long enough for me!

I splurged for this and really recommend people who are eyeballing it to make the purchase. These recordings reflect what I used to call the “FM radio” era of classical music in the 1970s: the last full flower of that buttery-smooth, highly-detailed analogue sound. And Previn’s conducting, far from conservative, is meticulous and sensitive, with the best inner sense of rhythm of just about anyone. I have rarely found myself tapping my toes or “air conducting” as much as I have listening to Previn. Even his unnoticed Beethoven 7, a bit slow at first blush, is a marvel for both clarity and detail, while fully living up to the work’s “apotheosis of the dance” reputation. Just one example of a kind of discreet magnificence found throughout this large box set that never feels like a long slog. Pure enjoyment.

Andre Previn's recording of Richard Strauss's Don Juan on EMI is stunning, exciting and dramatic! His Shostakovich 5th (with the Chicago SO) and 8th on EMI, Holst The Planets, Debussy orchestral pieces, Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet, Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique are the best recordings I have ever encountered! Indeed, he was a truly outstanding conductor in all the music he had conducted. As a composer, like Bernstein, he had that great innate sense of structure and musicality with a perfection in form and content. I have enjoyed immensely this wonderful box set!

Thanks for a wonderful, entertaining and informative marathon. To quote you (David H) this box chronicles "A Distinguished Legacy"...and any conductor who has left us TEN (or thereabouts) recordings that we can all agree qualify as "reference" recordings has made a damn' impressive showing within our profession (and that's WITHOUT including his great RCA/LSO recordings from the late '60's! - Walton 1st, Vaughan Williams 5th, Shostakovich 5th, etc). YES!-- Previn's 1975 LSO Prokofiev 5th is THE ONE TO OWN; the recording that finally (after 25 years) revealed the work's depth and power to a non-believer (me). YES! -- Previn's 1978 LSO Turangalila is THE ONE TO OWN; every detail is there, every note of the Ondes Martenot and the cymbal/tam-tam assortment...all in perfect balance and brilliant, sumptuous sound! Equally important is Previn's shaping and delineation of this sprawling score. I can't believe I've never heard Previn's Rach "Bells"; I'm sort of stuck on the mid '60's Kondrashin recording you mention..a true classic. Must hear Previn. But the Cover of the "Belshazzar's Feast" that Dave flashed didn't look QUITE like the LP cover that I have,. Hmmmmm..... could EMI have censored the original?? or was the cover I'm referring to for the U.S. release only, not the original British? ALSO--- FOR ALL PREVIN FANS---find a copy of his autobiography "NO MINOR CHORDS"...in which he recalls his Hollywood career in loving, sometimes startling detail; much cynicism but GREAT WIT and charm. A very enjoyable, breezy read. LR

Andre Previn was a regular customer at the Beverly Hills bookstore where I walked. Mr. Previn was friendly, approachable, and down to earth. I saw Previn first in the 60s with the American Symphony Orchestra La Valse was of the works and then I remember with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the late 80s at the Hollywood Bowl with my bro Rachmaninoff Symphony No 2. I also saw with the LA Phil Britten’s Our Hunting Fathers with Elisabeth Söderström.

Hello Mr Hurwitz. Thank you very much for making this talk about the recordings of Mr Previn. This is what you are a master of. The talk wasn't a second to long as far as I am concerned. Please do more of this big boxes reviews. Why not Kubelik's on Dg? Or Solti's Chicago on Decca? Best wishes Fred from Sweden.

Thank you for your perseverance, David. (Whew!) I agree that his EMI Gershwin is a bit blah, but, before his conducting days, he made a terrific recording of the Concerto in F, for Columbia with another Andre - Kostelanetz and the NY Phil. But what an incredibly versatile musician was Andre Previn.

Hi I just discovered your videos, very informative and lots of fun, thanks! This Previn box is really good... actually I think I like his "Planets", agreed the first movement (Mars) - probably not his cup of tea - but the other ones I find very subtle and tasteful. Again thank you and keep up the good work. Best wishes for a merry Christmas and a happy new year with lots of music. Andrea - Italy

Thank you for another enjoyable video. By chance the box was reviewed on the UK's Radio 3 yesterday, two interesting facts came out which show how the Classical Music world has changed over the last 50 years. Firstly someone worked that while Previn was in London he was on average making a recording every two weeks! totally unimaginable today. Secondly his TV programme on music on occasion got twenty million viewers, at that time the UK population was @55 million.

Look forward to Ormandy box review!!

Agree so much about THE BELLS...what a fantastic piece, and the Previn recording is top-notch. Also agree about the ALEXANDER NEVSKY

Wow, that was a marathon !...brought back a lot of memories. I totally agree about Temirkanov's Rach 2.....I used to go through the same process. All because I used to read the gospel according to Gramophone. However......there is a very well recorded and played version of Lambert's Rio Grande on Decca. It is by Barry Wordsworth, the BBC Concert Orchestra. The pianist is Kathryn Stott. Well worth a listen. Cheers Ian. Leicester UK.

I've always had a special place in my heart for the Previn/LSO years...maybe mostly for the LSO during that era had just an amazing "All Star " line up of musicians. Regardless you gotta take the bad with the good. Great to see these recordings back👍

I’m a huge Previn fan generally, and I hope to pick this up eventually. A lot of wonderful music here. Rest those lungs and vocal cords for the Ormandy box Dave!

Amazing. I never knew Previn recorded so much; and this cache was only his EMI discography! And you managed to say something about (nearly) every one of those 96 CD's. I hung on for the whole thing, even though Previn is not a conductor I have found particularly interesting (except for his fine RVW cycle for RCA). Now for something really ambitious: the newly issued Ormandy box from Sony. Can't wait to see whether you cover everything in that mammoth collection. My copy arrived yesterday. Mon dieu! I could hardly lift the thing. So far I have sampled only one CD, selected at random: a Debussy/Ravel album (#86, I think). Comparing these readings with Ormandy's later recordings of this repertoire was fascinating. The mono versions were neither as polished nor (predictably) as sumptuously recorded as his later ones. On the other hand, I found the earlier performances had greater vitality and textural clarity. But I can hardly generalize from one sample. Never has your maxim, "Keep on listening," been more apposite!

I've always hated the "first-rate conductor of second-rate music" take on Previn. Early on I came to really value his recordings especially of Holst, Britten (his Grimes Passacaglia is cataclysmic) and Shostakovich. In the first movement of Shost. 6 he is unmatched in sustained intensity and playing--better than Berglund in my view. Perhaps the overrated high-profile recordings like "The Planets" fed this dismissive view. I've never heard his Shostakovich Fourth but will check it out since you singled it out for praise. Thanks for giving his legacy the time it deserves. I just enjoyed for the first time last night his Mahler 4.