Anne-Sophie Mutter: I lost my soulmate
mainStatement from Anne-Sophie Mutter on André Previn’s Passing
February 28, 2019
Munich, Germany
André Previn has for more than 70 years illuminated this often dark world with his extraordinary gifts, his superb intelligence and wit.
We were companions in music for 4 decades and closest and dearest soulmates in the last 19 years. These years have brought me an abundance of deeply moving and challenging violin works. One of the first of them, the violin concerto, was an engagement present. I am forever grateful for all of his musical treasures.
André will live on in the hearts of the millions of music lovers that his life and music has touched. His many scores will continue to enrich the life of musicians around the globe.
Right now André is probably in the middle of a jam session with Oscar and Wolfgang…and he will outplay them.
Anne-Sophie Mutter
photo: DG
A delightfully easy going interview on the Charlie Rose show:https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e6HikZmm4N8
Much missed…
via the BBC2 series called “Orchestra!” Previn introduced Shostakovich 5, Berlioz Symphony Fantastique and many other classics to audiences far and wide.
His presentation style was immediately engaging….none of the gushing/ vacuous intonations which we sometimes encounter today.
RIP
Maybe the world will let him go now, back to the source, the music that was his life. I would mention praying, but …
I went to a store today, and at the checkout counter was asked if I found everything I need. “Everything?’ So eventually I mentioned that it would be nice if they had peace on earth, like in a bottle you could open up and spread around. Later I thought that’s quite a concept, you open it up and anyone entertaining diversity sort of goes into an enchanted dream state, something that catches their eye with its beauty takes hold, and whatever magical substance that came out of the bottle is working. But isn’t that what art actually does, in the long run? Beauty?
I wonder whether the powers that be wouldn’t have blown up the whole planet already if there wasn’t art, if they didn’t have the opera to go to, the museums etc. Since they are supposed to run everything, and when anything goes wrong it’s their fault.
Anyhow, perhaps something else takes care of things.
Art
The water that cleanses, the air that refreshes, the light that enchants….
That was supposed to read adversity rather than diversity. Anyone entertaining adversity was supposed to get the Lethe towards peace on earth. Not diversity.
Many of those same ‘powers that be’ actually commissioned, nurtured and facilitated that great art over the centuries. Never a simple question of ‘them’ and ‘us’, though some people today still think serious music is elitist. Andre Previn wasn’t one of them.
It actually comes from here you can insert adversities for the singular extremity https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/“Hope”_is_the_thing_with_feathers_—
Beautiful, and exactly right.
Very sad news. Previn was such a kind and gifted soul.
RIP – sorely missed.
But am afraid there’s one thing I never understood. How did he get an Oscar for ‘Porgy and Bess’ ? It’s always spoken about as if he composed it. Even in interviews he mentioned this Oscar. But surely it was just an arrangement of Gershwin’s work ?
Would be pleased if anybody could clarify. Thanks
In those days, at the Academy Awards, there were two categories for music scoring, “Best Original Score”, and “Best Adaptation/Song Score”. Previn won for Porgy and Bess in the Adaptation Score category.
Jeremy Atkin, is as BoyBoyJohn wrote. In those years, the category was named “Best Music: Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment”, and that explains not only Previn’s Oscar for “Porgy and Bess”, but also that he won for “Gigi” and “My Fair Lady”, two musicals with original music by Frederick Loewe.
As an admirer of Anne-Sophie Mutter’s violin playing, I must respectfully note that while her reference to Andre Previn’s “jam session with Oscar and Wolfgang” is a nice touch, her suggestion that “he will outplay them” is an unnecessary and unjustified exaggeration that can only be forgiven if she really wrote it literally during the very first day after his death.
Previn was such a soul-mate that Mutter divorced him. Makes sense to me.
The divorce was completely amicable, and they remained very good friends afterwards. Mutter always championed and played his compositions. I think she really did love him (but not as a lover).
If the intent was for both a ‘soul mate’ and a lover, why would she have married him in the first place?
I’m still married to my soulmate!!