Previn's Violin Concerto

Synopsis

On today’s date in 2002, a new Violin Concerto received its premiere by the Boston Symphony. The soloist was the German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, with the new work’s composer, Andre Previn, conducting. Despite his French-sounding first name and his British honorary knighthood, Previn was born in Berlin, he came to the United States in 1939, and became an American citizen in 1943.

Previn’s Violin Concerto has a kind of homecoming in its third movement, subtitled “From a Train in Germany.” Late in 1999, Previn had telephoned a birthday greeting to his manager back in New York while riding on a German train. That call prompted a suggestion that a musical work planned for Boston might reflect that train ride through the country of his birth. The 3rd movement also incorporates a German children’s song suggested by Anne-Sophie Mutter, one that Previn had known as a child in Germany.

Autobiographical inferences throughout the Violin Concerto are also suggested by an inscription from T. S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets,” which reads: “We shall not cease from exploration/And the end of all our exploring/will be to arrive where we started/and know the place for the first time.” And, as if to underscore the autobiographical interplay of life and art, Mutter and Previn were married on August 1, 2002, five months after the premiere of “their” Concerto.

That marriage (Previn’s fifth) ended four years later when the pair divorced in 2006, citing the 34 year difference in their ages as the cause.

Music Played in Today's Program

André Previn (b. 1930) Violin Concerto Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin; Boston Symphony; André Previn, cond.

On This Day

Births

• 1681 - German composer Georg Philipp Telemann, in Magdeburg;

• 1727 - Baptism of German composer and keyboard virtuoso Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, in Danzig (now Gdansk);

• 1804 - Austrian composer and conductor Johann Strauss, Sr., in Vienna;

Premieres

• 1734 - Handel: anthem "This is the day which the Lord hath made" in London at the French Chapel of St. James's Palace, for the wedding of Princess Anne and Prince Willem, the Prince of Orange (Gregorian date: March 25);

• 1824 - Schubert: String Quartet in a (D. 804) in Vienna, by the Schuppanzigh Quartet; Published the following September, this was the only chamber work of Schubert's published in his lifetime;

• 1847 - Verdi: opera "Macbeth," in Florence at the Teatro della Pergola;

• 1885 - Gilbert & Sullivan: operetta "The Mikado," at the Savoy Theatre in London;

• 1963 - Simpson: Symphony No. 3, in Birmingham, England;

• 1975 - Ulysses Kay: Quintet Concerto for brass and orchestra, in New York City;

• 1976 - Paul Creston: "Hyas Illahee" for chorus and orchestra, in Shreveport, La.;

• 1986 - Harrison Birtwistle: "Earth Dances" for orchestra, at Royal Festival Hall in London by the BBC Symphony, Peter Eotvos conducting;

• 1996 - Leo Ornstein: Piano Sonata No. 6, at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, by pianist Marvin Tartak;

• 2000 - David Maslanka: Wind Quintet No. 3, in Columbus, Mo., by the Missouri Quintet;

• 2001 - Danielpour: Cello Concerto No. 2 ("Through the Ancient Valley"), by the New York Philharmonic, Kurt Masur conducting, with soloist Yo-Yo Ma;

• 2002 - Previn: Violin Concerto, by the Boston Symphony with the composer conducting and soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter;

• 2003 - Jim Mobberley: "Vox Inhumana" for live and prerecorded sounds, in Kansas City, by the NewEar ensemble.