Andre Previn: I was told I had no talent
mainFrom a 2015 interview with New Music Box.
Full transcript here.
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there are some possible euphemisms in such situations , for example “get the packed out with you conclusions” or “pack yourself until you get a clearer view”
PS you’ve got a point for that footage , Norman, I laughed 😉
Me, too… with a tear in my eye
Nobody is eternal …. take it in stride, sometimes somebody passes away before we do the same. I usually go to the nearest church and light/hold a candle for that person…. Some say we shouldn’t cry over them because it prevent them from moving higher in other worlds, I (somehow) believe in that words…. just a few thoughts on a subject …..
those words … too many lapsuses for today … disappear for a while
Some thoughts on Previn, his first opera, it’s opening night in San Francisco and a bit more.
In English:
https://basiaconfuoco.com/2018/11/22/a-streetcar-named-desire-twenty-years-after-its-premiere/
Absolutely the right answer to give to a pompous idiot who says that to any 16 year-old.
“Every child is an artist until he is told he is not an artist.”
— John Lennon
Priceless. And a great story to tell to students, who get told that kind of thing with dismaying frequency (and often great inaccuracy).
Reminds me of the famous pianists who never won a prize in any international piano competition. And of those who did and who now work in a university or music school.
Ernst Toch died in 1964, when Previn was 35. I can’t help wondering what he thought of Previn’s later development, if he made the connection with that young boy.
You always remember the ones that got away and whose talent exceeded your ability to assess their potential. Said from experience.
Toch came from the old world of Mahler, Schönberg, Berg etc. Hollywood was only a life necessity for him. I don’t think the Hollywood world itself, its industry and community and jazz and television et al was his cop of tea.
Klemperer might have told Previn the same, although I doubt very much André had asked Old Klemp to “F*ck himslef”!…
The same was told to Dmitry Shostakovich mother when she took her aspiring pianist son to Alexandre Silotti.”The boy has no talent but if he like to play let him” said AS. History proved that boy had more talent than the maestro
That’s one point of view . Another , just as valid, is that Siloti was correct
A wonderfully succinct response from Mr Previn, and oh so appropriate!
I am grateful for your gentle remembrances of this talented musician – I remember a time when your reviews were sometimes less than positive!
Dear Heather
Of course they were. And there is much more to say about this multifaceted man, just not right now.
best wishes
Norman
Great in Mozart, Tchaikovsky and English music but not a first choice in Bruckner, Mahler or Wagner.
This is still a fabulous achievement which we can enjoy. And a critic would be right to say this when reviewing a recording or performance.
Almost an Overture, 2017
Caps and Bells for Orchestra, 2015
Cello Concerto 1, 1960
Cello Concerto 2, 2010
Concerto for Horn, Trumpet, Tuba and Orchestra, 2011
Concerto for Orchestra, 2016
Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra, 2014
Concerto for Violin, Double Bass and Orchestra, 2004
Concerto for Violin, Viola and Orchestra, 2009
Diversions for Orchestra, 1999
Filmscore “Bad Day at Black Rock,” 1954
Filmscore “Elmer Gantry,” 1960
Filmscore “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” 1961
Filmscore “Inside Daisy Clover,” 1965
Filmscore “It’s Always Fair Weather,” 1955
Filmscore “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” 1962
Filmscore “The Sun Comes Up,” 1949
Guitar Concerto, 1970
Harp Concerto, 2007
Incidental Music for ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Favour’, 1976
Music for Boston, 2012
Music for Wind Orchestra (No Strings Attached), 2014
Night Thoughts for Orchestra, 2005
Overture to a Comedy, 1963
Piano Concerto, 1984
Principals for Orchestra, 1980
Reflections for English Horn (or Cello) and Orchestra, 1981
Symphony for Strings, 1965
Tone Poem “Can Spring be Far Behind?,” 2016
Tone Poem “Owls,” 2008
Violin Concerto 1, 1969
Violin Concerto 2 “Anne-Sophie,” 1999
Violin Concerto 3, 2010
Bassoon Sonata, 1997
Cello Sonata, 1993
Clarinet Quintet, 2011
Clarinet Sonata, 2010
Four Outings for 5-Part Brass Ensemble, 1974
Hoch soll er leben for Horn, 2 Trumpets, Trombone and Tuba, 1997
Montfort for Oboe and Piano, 2016
Nonet, 2014
Octet for Eleven, 2010
Peaches for Flute and Piano, 1978
Quintet for Horn and Strings, 2017
String Quartet (with Soprano), 2003
Tango, Song and Dance for Violin and Piano, 1997
Trio 1 for Piano, Violin and Cello, 2008
Trio 2 for Piano, Violin and Cello, 2012
Trio for Piano, Oboe and Bassoon, 1994
Triolet for Horn, 4 Trumpets, 4 Trombones and Tuba, 1985
Two Little Serenades for Violin and Piano, 1970
Violin Sonata 1, 1960
Violin Sonata 2 “Vineyard,” 1994
Violin Sonata 3, 2011
Violin Sonata 4 “Morning Rain and Warm Evening,” 2013
Violin Sonata 5 “The Fifth Season,” 2016
Violin Sonata 6 “ … and Another Airport,” 2018
A Wedding Waltz for 2 Oboes and Piano, 1986
Five Pages From My Calendar, 1978
Impressions (20) for Piano, 1964
Invisible Drummer (Five Preludes), 1974
Matthew’s Piano Book (10 Pieces), 1979
Paraphrase on a Theme by Walton, 1973
Suite for Piano, 1967
Variations on a Theme by Haydn, 1990
The Faraway Part of Town (for Movie ‘Pepe’), 1959
Five (Larkin) Songs, 1977
Four (Morrison) Songs for Soprano, Cello and Piano, 1994
Four Songs for Soprano and Orchestra, 1968
Four Songs for Tenor and Piano, 2004
The Giraffes Go to Hamburg for Soprano, Alto Flute and Piano, 2000
The Magic Number for Soprano and Orchestra, 1995
Monodrama “Penelope” for Soprano, String Quartet and Piano, 2019
One, Two, Three Waltz (for Movie ‘One, Two, Three’), 1961
Sallie Chisum remembers Billy the Kid, 1994
A Second Chance (for Movie ‘Two For the Seesaw’), 1962
Sieben Lieder for Soprano and Piano, 2006
Song Cycle “Honey and Rue,” 1992
Song Cycle “Ten by Yeats,” 2017
Theme for ‘Valley of the Dolls’ (Gotta Get Off, Gonna Get), 1967
Three Dickinson Songs for Soprano and Piano, 1999
Two Remembrances for Soprano, Alto Flute and Piano, 1995
Vocalise for Voice and Cello, 1995
You’re Gonna Hear From Me (for Movie ‘Inside Daisy Clover’), 1965
Musical “Coco,” 1969
Musical “The Good Companions,” 1974
A Streetcar Named Desire, 1997
A Streetcar Named Desire: I Can Smell the Sea Air
A Streetcar Named Desire: I Want Magic
Brief Encounter, 2007
Brief Encounter: Fred, Fred, Dear Fred
Brief Encounter: This Is a Face of a Woman Who Lies
Brief Encounter: This Pain Can’t Last
I was there when Previn conducted the premier of “Owls,” at Symphony Hall Boston in 2008. He was really frail even that many years ago.
I’m inclined to give Ernst Toch a bit of leeway for his foolish remark. Toch received his training in Vienna around the turn of the century when concepts of music education for composers and pianists were fairly different than in the USA in the mid 40s when this incident took place. It’s unfortunate his Viennese ear did appreciate the jazz nutured sensibility of a kid who was attending Beverly Hills High School, but understandable given the circumstances.
But most of all, I give Toch some leeway because while a young man he rose to become one of the leading composers in the German-speaking world, but had to flee when Hitler took power. (He had rather humble origins. His father was a leather merchant.) Unlike Korngold, he was wasn’t very successful in establishing himself in Hollywood. His career took a steep dive and never returned. Given his remarkable promise, and its destruction, he was one of the most notable victims of the Nazi persecutions.
And of course, Previn’s rendition of the encounter, and the fuck you response, sounds like it might be a bit embellished.
This is the first time I agree with Mr. W. Osborne. Previn is really capable os crossroad!
… “of course”?
Embellishments aside, if Previn properly regaled the spirit of their interaction, Toch should have not humiliated a 16-year old. He could have qualified his criticism without dismissing the young Previn. There are many ways to process trauma, including generosity of spirit. Examples of the latter abound, both in the public sphere, including Jewish victims of the Nazis, and among people we personally know.
“I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.”
— Khalil Gibran
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/khalil_gibran_125408
I think Toch’s criticism was unforgivably rude and most probably jaundiced.
Best answer possible!
Today the pendulum has swung the other way and we almost never say someone “has no talent”… unless we are on the internet and sniping about someone who clearly does.
It is all of the same cloth, however; we attempt to assert superior discernment powers by claiming to see faults no one else does.
Toch’s most famous work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZfSolxrLWo
Vaughan Williams reminiscing about a typical composition lesson with Charles Villiers Stanford:
CVS: Damnably ugly, my boy, why do you write such things?
RVW: I shouldn’t write them if I didn’t like them.
CVS: But you can’t like them, they’re not music.
Richard Strauss to Arnold Schönberg: “Why do you write so awfully? You have good ideas!” 😀
Richard Strauss seems to have had it in for several “modernists” — here’s another famous barb-and-retort:
Strauss: “Why do you have to write this way? You have talent!”
Paul Hindemith: “Herr professor, you make your music and I’ll make mine.”
At least one major composer laced his critiques with a dose of humor… Rossini was visited by a young aspirant who asked the senior composer to listen to two piano pieces he had written. As soon as the younger man had finished playing the first one, Rossini quickly said, “I like the other one better!”
While I can’t sympathize with his dismissal of Previn, I do think that Toch’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Third Symphony is a very fine score indeed:
https://youtu.be/rwppm1JaD_M
I think Previn must be referring to Tippett’s triple not double concerto and I agree it’s not worth the effort.