Your most treasured Andre Previn LSO recordings:

[Nic Robinson]

For me this really was one of the golden eras of British orchestral music making and coupled with wonderful sounding recordings, what's not to like?

I love his LSO Rachmaninov concertos with Ashkenazy. For me the C minor is as good as any I've heard.

His Rachmaninov 2nd symphony with the LSO remains definitive to my ears.

Massive fan of his Belshazzar's Feast with the inimitable John Shirley-Quirk.

I'm sure I'll think of more as the day wears on.

 

[alanbeeb]

Got to be honest...I find that 2nd symphony recording is just too slow in the adagio.... The gorgeous tune can't sustain the slowness and is lost, despite Jack Brymer's wonderful clarinet.

But plenty of other great recordings... their Walton 1st is definitely definitive, RVW 3 & 5, and last night discovered Bernstein's Serenade recorded with ASM and the LSO.

 

[Nic Robinson]

Yes. That Walton 1 is perfect. As for the slow melody...if you've got it...

 

[gingermrkettle]

Never mind the Walton 1, Walton 2 on ASD2990 is fantastic. There is also the cracking Turangalila.

 

[kimmiles]

For me, even now after all these years with superb VW cycles (Hickox, Davis, Haitink, Manze etc etc), it is still the Previn/LSO cycle that makes me warm all over; probably because it was my first VW cycle and Previn was almost a household name, courtesy of Music Night and Morcambe and Wise!!!
His Tchaikovsky Ballet performances are a bit underrated too, imho.

 

[gustavm]

Shostakovitch 8:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01A61C69A/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

The recording that introduced me to Shostakovitch.

 

[Dozey]

RVW London Symphony for me.

 

[jimpey]

At the risk of lowering the tone of this earnest thread and relevant only because it was (presumably) made during his LSO tenure -

My favourite above all is Mr. Peview's appearance with Morecambe and Wise

Sorry chaps, I'll get me coat......

Jim

 

[eisenach]

The RVWs mentioned above, Gerschwin Rhapsody in Blue and American in Paris:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00002439G/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

and this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000006NXN/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

Some great playing by both Previn and Finck.

 

[Nic Robinson]

What do pfm'ers think of the Rachmaninov piano suites with Ashkenazy? I'm told Horowitz thought they were a joke...but I'm a bit of a fan.

 

[kimmiles]

I'm with you, Nic. They are great pieces and the 2 disc set also includes the Symphonic Dances arranged for 2 pianos: truly wonderful (the orchestral version being one of my top pieces of symphonic music by anyone!!!)

 

[Tony L]

Had a look earlier and the Andre Previn jazz album I have is ‘Gigi’. I’ve left it out for a play - I remember it being pretty decent despite my tendency to run a mile from musicals. A proper jazz treatment seems to fix that though. Mine is a nice US vinyl pressing, I don’t think it is an original, but probably not far off (maybe early ‘70s). I’ve got some of the better known classical stuff too, e.g. the Rach, Gershwn etc.

 

[Nic Robinson]

I have none of his jazz on disc sadly.
Another one I remembered from the LSO years is Carmina Burana. Still my go to recording.

 

[Stunsworth]

I bought Turangalila on LP when it was released and hadn’t heard anything like it before.

I streamed one of his solo piano jazz recordings yesterday. Very good it was too, excellent playing.

 

[Nic Robinson]

Just spinning my vinyl copy of Walton 1 now. Stunning.

 

[FrankF]

Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano cto and Walton's 1 for sure. I have at least one of his documentaries on video which I need to find. Been sorting through my collection of his and can't find anything I don't really like except perhaps "It's A Breeze" and "A Different Kind Of Blues" both with Perlman, Manne, Hall and Mitchell, which I was never really able to warm up to. TIme to give them another chance. But for his classical stuff I've always loved Previn.

 

[alanbeeb]

Nearly forgot about his Shostakovich 6th - an under-rated symphony but one of my favourites, and Previn's is one of the best recordings, really brings out the sense of glacial dread in the 1st movement then sheer terror at the climax of the 2nd movement. I have the 1980s CD which issued it with his Rachmaninov 3rd symphony, and its well worthwhile too - but how odd to consider that these two symphonies are close contemporaries of each other, yet so utterly different.

 

[marshanp]

Nearly forgot about his Shostakovich 6th - an under-rated symphony but one of my favourites, and Previn's is one of the best recordings, really brings out the sense of glacial dread in the 1st movement then sheer terror at the climax of the 2nd movement...

Hmmm... I haven't heard this (didn't know it existed, having never heard any performance to displace Mravinsky's live version, coupled with the only Sibelius 7th I need... I ramble, back to the point!) and must investigate it. Previn's Shostakovich 4 and 13 with the LSO are both tremendous. For an American, he is surprisingly good at dread and terror... and the conductor/orchestra relationship at that time was one of the great ones.

edit: Ah, it got under the radar because of the couplings with either Rachmaninov 3 or Lieutenant Kije... the latter £16 from Japan... I think I'll have a look in Oxfam

 

[marshanp]

Ooooh-aaaah, I gave in and ordered the Japanese Warner CD version of Shostakovich 6 at £16... and I don't buy CDs any more! (but that's my fourth this month)

We'll see if the sound quality is anything special vs. my European copies of Previn/LSO Shostakovich symphonies 4 and 13, which I have always found perfectly satisfactory...

 

[marshanp]

Update: the Previn Shostakovich 6 (coupled with Lieutenant Kije) on Japanese Warner, complete with obi strip and with not a word of English except on the front cover, arrived from Tokyo yesterday.

I put it on and was... decidedly underwhelmed. Yes, the dread is there, but the LSO were not on form that day - no precision to their playing in the first movement. Lots of points at which re-takes were needed that didn't get done.

The second movement is very slow by comparison with most; yes, it is a waltz (of sorts), but this waltz sounds stodgy.

The recording is nothing to write home about, either; the Warner Europe masterings of numbers 4 and 13 sound much better to me, with more air around the music, more clarity when it gets big. The Japanese mastering (or this specific recording) does not flatter the woodwind players.

I then listened to my R3 Building a Library (Edward Seckerson) from 2006 - not a word about Previn, and no mention of Mravinsky's live 1972 recording. Believe me, once you have heard that all others will seem inadequate. So much for finding the best version for a collection... pah!