Julie Andrews, Andre Previn, and one wild Firestone album

Today I put up my Christmas tree and I am going to kick off an exploration of Christmas music.

Our pick today is Julie Andrews and Andre Previn teaming up for a Firestone classic!

Christmas is really a magical time of year when you listen to anything from the 1950s and '60s. This album, I know it inside out, from when I was a little kid. My brothers and sisters and I listened to it ALL THE TIME over the holiday season. This, and other Firestone records. They are all great. But I want to zero in today on this one.

Of course as kids we loved Julie Andrews. And we loved this record. I listened to it today as I assembled my, ahem, Kmart artificial tree, and put lights on it. It all came back to me. "Joy to the... joy to the .... Joy to the ... joy to the..." sang the Firestone Chorus at the beginning of "Joy To The World." We used to laugh ourselves silly over that.

 And we used to love Julie Andrews doing her number on "Deck the Halls" with harpsichord backing her up, and who knows what else.

These arrangements by Andre Previn!

That is what I am appreciating now!

As a kid, I do remember we liked this album. But his arrangements were over our head. Now I listen to them and I see what he is doing, and I love them. I know a little bit about Previn because Leonard Pennario worked with him. They did a great album of Rachmaninoff concertos. Here is the cover.

A couple of nice looking gentlemen there.

What do you know, that album dates to 1965, the same year as this Firestone album. That was a good year for Previn!

You can tell just by listening to his Christmas creations that Previn loved the heck out of Richard Strauss, who at the time was only recently deceased. He lifted stuff from "Rosenkavalier" for half the album. You hear the Presentation of the Rose in "Away in a Manger." And later you hear the famous waltzes. It might have been in "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" but I did not take notes, I was too tangled up in my Christmas lights. The point is, he does it so well. You would think it would be annoying but it is not.

He also gives you a lot of Handel. Even as kids we could recognize that. And he just throws in a lot of surprises and boldness and fun. As Julie Andrews is singing "Jingle Bells," the orchestra just breaks out in squalls all over the place. It is like unpredictable wild Buffalo weather. "Jingle Bells" ends the album. Julie Andrews soars up to some incredible high note on the last "sleigh." And then the orchestra blasts in with this big honk.

So much fun! Too sophisticated for kids maybe, but great for grown-ups, people into jazz and Handel and Richard Strauss. Previn is a great jazz pianist and we will have to get to that another day.

For now, grab this album and put it on your stereo, whether you are isolated or not. What a great mid-century creation it is.

It is a classic!

4 musicians forever young

It was a jolt the other day to hear that Byron Janis was what, 84?

I guess he is. He was born March 28, 1928. He seems perennially youthful for some reason. There is the fact that Byron Janis was the student of Horowitz. It is youthful to be perceived as somebody's student. Also that first name, Byron, makes you think of George Gordon, Lord Byron, the perennially youthful poet.

In Buffalo we have Mayor Byron Brown ...

... who seems perennially youthful too.

Other musicians who seem forever young even though they are not:

Andre Previn, here seen with Leonard Pennario.

Previn always looked the part of the hipster ...

... which makes him seem young.

Who else? Midori, of course.

Is she even 30 yet?

That is not to be confused with Midori the melon liqueur.

Ha, ha! Back to musicians who are forever young. Another one is Joshua Bell, the violinist. The other day I interviewed Joshua Bell and the story was going to be in the paper. And Friday, the night before it was in, I was out at happy hour with a few of my friends. And we got to talking about Joshua Bell.

"Is he even 30 yet?" my friend Judi asked.

And I said, "Gee, I think he said he was 44."

And all of a sudden I got all worried. What if I had misunderstood him? Because he looks so young. Was he 44? What if he had said he was 34 and I had not heard him right? How could Joshua Bell...

... be 44?

Finally my friend Judi Googled him on her iPhone and yes, he was 44.

Unbelievable.

You have to hand it to these musicians.

They are forever young!

My dinner with Andre

A couple of weeks ago I was astonished to realize that Andre Previn, the conductor and pianist, is 80 years old. You do not think of Andre Previn as being 80.

As a matter of fact I made a note in this notebook I carry around with me, because I thought maybe I should put that on the, ahem, Web log. I wrote: "Andre Previn is 80 (!)"

I was not the only one thinking that! Today in the Wall Street Journal there is a big story by Barrymore Laurence Scherer on Andre Previn being 80 and it begins by acknowledging what a youthful image of him we all have. The story goes on to list all the celebrations going on in his honor.

You can read that story here.

Oops! Mistake! That was a gossipy story I found when I was looking for a picture and could not stop reading. Those British, they love their gossip! Here I was just looking for a picture and I wind up finding this dirt.

Here is the story from the Wall Street Journal.

Where was I? Previn's birthday celebrations. For one thing he is playing tonight at Carnegie Hall with his ex-wife Anne-Sophie Mutter and also the great cellist Lynn Harrell.

Here is a picture of Previn with Mutter.


I do not care for Anne-Sophie Mutter, I have to be honest. Her playing is too self-indulgent for me. It is as if she always goes out of her way to do something different and that distracts me from the music. She did one recording of Brahms that began to make me seasick, it was so this way and that.

But Lynn Harrell, I think he is terrific. And he was so nice to me talking to me about Leonard Pennario for my book. It makes me feel honored when I think about it, that Pennario trusted me with calling all these people he esteemed. I do know that he thought Harrell was great and loved playing with him.

Next I would like to catch up with Andre Previn. He and Pennario worked together in the early '60s. They recorded Rachmaninoff's Piano Concertos No. 1 and 4. That is the album cover up above. I always liked that picture of Pennario.

The Rachmaninoff First has the most beautiful slow movement. The opening makes me think of "Tristan and Isolde." Here it is with Andre Previn and Vladimir Ashkenazy. I will have to work with my YouTube friend Larry and get Pennario's performance up there.

Meanwhile, here is what I will do. I will give Andre Previn's birthday celebrations time to taper off, and then he will get a call from me.

We have much to discuss!