A celebration

Description

80th anniversary of conductor André Previn. A beautiful tribute to celebrate the 80th anniversary (on April 6 this year) of André Previn: a complete musician, conductor, pianist, composer, and educator, André Previn took care to select from his favorite recordings made for Deutsche Grammophon and Decca, to bring them together in a remarkable 6CD box set. Alongside works by Ravel (L'Enfant et les Sortilèges), Strauss (Symphonia Domestica), Korngold (Symphony in F-sharp major), and Shostakovich (Symphony No. 8), several compositions by Previn are included to showcase his talent as a composer, with the highlight being the world premiere of his Double Concerto for violin and double bass, featuring soloists Anne-Sophie Mutter and Roman Patkoló, recorded live in Boston in April 2007. The box set also features Renée Fleming (in compositions by Previn, including the final aria from A Streetcar Named Desire by Blanche Dubois), Vladimir Ashkenazy (Previn's Piano Concerto), Kyung-Wha Chung (Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1). Anne-Sophie Mutter is also a soloist in the violin concertos by Korngold and Previn. The generously illustrated booklet includes comments from André Previn himself.