Previn: Violin Concerto/ Bernstein: Serenade

I really don't enjoy too many modern compositions, but this is an exception. I was present for the live recording of the Previn concerto at Symphony Hall in Boston, and when I listened to the recording it immediately took me back to the impressions I had during the concert. A lyrical, hauntingly beautiful work with several interesting and memorable themes running through it. Mutter was unbelievable live, but this recording really does her justice. It is clear Previn and Mutter's partnership is intimate, as they seem to be absolutely in union throughout the piece. The contributions of the BSO, though somewhat sparse, are captured well. It would not surprise me if this work develops a following, being in a similar vein to the Sibelius concerto, though certainly more modern and less overtly dramatic. The Bernstein is also well worth it, a wonderful companion piece to the Previn.

The Previn Violin Concerto is one that proves more rewarding the more one listens to it. Having also heard the music in concert (Andre Previn conducting and Anne-Sophie Mutter performing) this is a concerto that has long melodies, beautiful orchestration and a fabulous part for the soloist. The soloist must be prepared to play for most of the 40 minutes of the concerto, a very demanding work, requiring some very difficult playing. The first movement - marked Moderato - reminded me of Korngold's music somewhat in the lush theme played by the violin. But, make no mistake; Maestro Previn is not imitating anyone. The composer has said that the concerto harkens back to childhood memories and other associations, and clearly the music has is descriptive. The middle movement, Cadenza, has a brooding quality to the music with the soloist interacting with soloists in the orchestra. The final movement Andante ("from a train in Germany") is lyrical with the soloist having some very beautiful passages but also contains some dramatic writing for the orchestra. There are passages of an elegiac nature where the soloist and orchestra seem deep in a melancholy remembrance. The soloist has the last word, ending the concerto with a quietly played passage in the upper register.

The concerto requires a large orchestra with harp, celesta and a large percussion section. This is a concerto that one is impressed with on a first hearing and will reveal more on repeated hearings - a work that Maestro Previn will be high on his list of accomplishments. The disc also contains a superb recording of Leonard Bernstein's Serenade on Plato's Symposium. This work is a concerto in all but name, similar to Lalo's Rhapsody Espanole. The Serenade was written in 1954 on a commission from the Koussevitzky Foundation and was inspired by the composer's reading of Plato's dialogue about the nature or love. The work in is five movements and each relates what one of the members of the dinner has to say about love: Phaedrus, Pausanius, Aristophanes, Erixymachus, Agathon and Socrates and Alcibiades. The first movement is an eloquent lyrical piece representing the speech of Phaedrus in praise of Eros. Aristophanes is a thoughtful Allegretto as he relates the myth of love followed by the playful Presto representing Erixymachus and the deeply felt Adagio representing Agathon. The boisterous finale representing Socrates and the tipsy Alcibiades has a wonderful jazz rhythm, perhaps not every Classicists ideal music) and closes the Serenade on a jubilant note. A first rate performance by Anne-Sophie Mutter and Andre Previn.

These are well-recorded performances, beautifully played by the London Symphony. I found the packaging of the CD of note: there are so many pictures of Anne-Sophie Mutter and Andre Previn that I found it odd that there was not a single one of Leonard Bernstein.

If I recall rightly, Plato says that love should be harmonious and musical. I don't think Bernstein relates his Serenade After Plato's Symposium to any of the more abstruse Platonic doctrines such as the spheres. He had been reading the Symposium on his honeymoon, and the discussion of love sparked off his musical imagination, as is the way with creative musicians. He calls the work a serenade rather than a concerto presumably because it is in five movements, like some of Mozart's serenades, and very likely also with a view to heading off terminological arguments from the musical commentators. He will have known to expect ponderous theorising from them over his use of the names of the participants to characterise each movement, and he either did not choose to put the names at the end of the movements in the way Debussy did, or possibly that did not even occur to him to do. This Serenade does not seem `programme' music to me in any important respects. There may or may not be some suggestion of tipsiness on the part of the volatile Alcibiades in the last movement (`symposium' means `drinking-party' after all), but the jazz influence seems a lot more significant to me. Bernstein was a creative genius in his own right. Plato set his creativity off on this occasion just as other influences, most of which we probably have no idea of, will have done on other occasions, and I doubt there is much to be gained from earnest efforts to correlate text to music here.

Previn's violin concerto is the first piece of third-millennium music (premiered in 2002) in my collection. It was written to a commission from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, although it appears to have been at least partly Previn's own decision what type of piece would fulfil the commission, which seems remarkably democratic to me. The work is in the standard 3-movement classical concerto form, with the last movement a set of variations as in at least two Mozart concertos that I can think of. It is either all about love or partly about love and partly about friendships and relationships, but once again I don't feel confident about reading too much of the composer's autobiographical detail into the musical notes. Music, except when explicitly representational, is just music in the end, however strong and specific the external emotion that gave rise to it. This concerto is dedicated to Anne-Sophie Mutter, who is now, I gather, married to the composer. That is some sort of beacon to me as I follow my way through the piece, but in the last resort neither I nor anyone else except the composer himself can really understand what personal emotions inform this or that aspect of the music. It has to be intelligible as if we knew nothing about its origins, and from that point of view it comes over to me as a fairly middle-of-the-road piece of contemporary classical music. Some passages are strongly tonal in the traditional sense, but it slips in and out of strict tonality, in a way that has become fairly familiar. There is a good deal of lyricism, and obviously heartfelt lyricism too, but the work is more `modern' than the violin concerto of, say, Khachaturian and probably even than most of Prokofiev, and it is interesting to recall that the beautiful but ultra-conservative violin concerto of Somervell was written in Previn's own lifetime. One recent development in musical taste and fashion that is becoming too obvious not to notice is a decided reaction, not only among musical journalists but in the ranks of the leading performers too, against the more cacophonously intellectual music of the 20th century. How recently this trend started, how strong it really is, how Previn felt about it at the time of writing this piece, and what his thoughts about the matter may be now are all things unknown to me. I must say he looks in extremely good shape for his age, so I hope we may be hearing more from him that may help resolve some of these issues.

The playing of Anne-Sophie Mutter is rightly regarded as outstanding even in what is a great age of instrumentalists. If I say it has everything that will put less strain on your patience than if I enumerated a standard list of terms of approbation. In terms of authenticity, this account of the Previn concerto is literally unsurpassable, even the orchestra being the very body who commissioned the work in the first place. As interpreters of Bernstein they seem first-rate to me as well. This will surprise nobody who knows Previn's background not only as an eminent classical conductor but prior to that as a jazz pianist, nor will it astonish anyone already familiar with the outstanding gifts of the soloist. The recording is admirable, as one would expect again by this date, and the liner-note is informative. The disc is presented in DG's new arrangement of cardboard casing with a fold-over front section, but they have improved this now so as to make the liner easier to take out and put back in. As for Mr Previn's new concerto, I would not take it on myself to offer an assessment so early in its life, even if I felt more sure what I actually think of it anyway.