R.I.P Andre Previn

On February 28 2019, we lost the German-American, conductor, composer and pianist André Previn who had started out writing scores for movies by the likes of MGM before moving in to Jazz and then classical playing and conducting.

André was in many respects an important popularizer of Classical music in an era where opportunities to hear such music were limited to rather stuffy concerts where conductors and players alike dressed more like they were at a funeral than having fun playing music for people.

In Great Britain, there were in the 1970's two shows that broke the mode, one being the BBC Radio 2 series A Hundred Best Tunes, that played popular extracts from classical music that lead to compilation records and tapes being issued to tie in with it.
BBC Television secured from 1971 through 1979 a coup in having Andre present a show live on tv where he and the London Symphony Orchestra would play whole short works in front of an audience in a less formal way that proved extremely popular.
It was an era where even one serving British  Prime Minister, Edward Heath was actually a classical conductor.
That show resulted in a few selections being issued with an eye toward the shows audience the most obvious being this, Andre Previn's Music night that was issued in SQ Quadraphonic sound on record and tape.

 Of his many achievements as a conductor, his 1970's set of the complete Tchaikovsky Ballet scores for Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and the Nutcracker recording in stereo and SQ Quad remain my personal favourites having then in a six cd set with their light airy touch.
He also famously took part in the Christmas 1971 Morecambe and Wise tv show playing as the straight conductor to Eric Morecambe attempting to play Greig's Piano Concerto on piano, something that showed his sense of humour.
R.I.P André.