MOVIE MUSIC UK

Composer André Previn died on February 28, 2019, at home in Manhattan, New York, after a short illness. He was 89.

André George Previn was born in April 1929, in Berlin, Germany, and he showed early musical talent and began studying piano and composition as a child. Fleeing Nazi persecution, Previn’s family emigrated to Los Angeles in 1938, where his uncle Charles Previn, a music director at Universal Studios, introduced him to Hollywood’s burgeoning film industry. He graduated from Beverly Hills High School – where he was a classmate of Richard M. Sherman – and he went to work at MGM Studios as a teenager in the 1940s, where he quickly became a key figure in their music department. Over two decades, he composed, arranged, and conducted music for over 50 films. His film scores displayed a sophisticated blend of lush orchestration and accessibility, contributing significantly to the Golden Age of Hollywood.

His first scores were written when he was still in his early 20s, and he worked on a wide range of films, from westerns like Bad Day at Black Rock (1954) and The Fastest Gun Alive (1956) to dramatic epics like Elmer Gantry (1960) and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1961), and lighthearted comedies like The Music Lovers (1970). His scores often reflected his classical training, jazz influences, and innate ability to capture the emotional essence of a story.

However, it was for his work as a conductor and adapter that Previn achieved his most notable success. He won four Academy Awards – for Gigi (1958), a romantic musical celebrated for its elegant score and enduring songs; Porgy and Bess (1959), where he adapted Gershwin’s operatic themes for the screen; Irma la Douce (1963), which blended Parisian charm with a jazzy musical sensibility; and My Fair Lady (1964), a grand adaptation of the Broadway classic, which showcased Previn’s ability to translate stage musicals into cinematic masterpieces – and was nominated seven other times, for Three Little Words in 1951, Kiss Me Kate in 1954, It’s Always Fair Weather in 1956, Bells Are Ringing in 1961, Pepe in 1961, Two for Seesaw in 1963, Thoroughly Modern Millie in 1968, and Jesus Christ Superstar in 1974.

In the 1960s, Previn expanded his focus to and began a successful secondary writing and conducting classical music. He held music director positions with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Oslo Philharmonic, as was the principal conductor of both the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. While living in London in the 1970s Previn became a famous television celebrity following his comedic appearance on the the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show in 1971, where his name was intentionally mispronounced as ‘Andrew Preview’ by comedian Eric Morecambe. As recently as 2005 Previn recalled that people in Britain still remember the sketch years later, and that taxi drivers still called him Mr. Preview.

Throughout his life, Previn was awarded numerous honors. In addition to his Academy Awards he won Grammy Awards, and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1998. He was also was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1996 although, not being a citizen of a Commonwealth realm, he was permitted to use the post-nominal letters KBE but was not styled “Sir André”.

Previn was married five times; to jazz singer Betty Bennett (1952-1957)​, singer-songwriter Dory Langan (1959-1970)​, actress Mia Farrow (1970-1979)​, Heather Hales (1982-1999)​, and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter (2002-2006)​, and he has 10 children, including daughter violinist Alicia and adopted daughter Soon-Yi. Soon-Yi married director Woody Allen in 1997, meaning that Previn was technically Allen’s father-in-law, despite being only six years older than him!