Andre Previn - Michael Freedland

Andre Previn, the internationally renowned conductor and composer talks for the first time about his life: of his family's flight from Nazi Germany and arrival in America, where his once successful barrister father was forced to become a piano teacher, barely making a living; his difficult relationshiop with his elder brother; the grief he felt when his beloved sister died of cancer at 31; and the women in his life - his four wives, including his stormy marriage to Mia Farrow. He recounts his early career ghosting scores for Oscar-winning Hollywood musical directors, some of whom could barely read a note; and his days in the Army during the Korean War, where he spent much of the time near the Canadian border, digging latriness in the freezing cold. It was during one such exercise that he learned he had received his first Oscar nomination - he was 22.;Andre Previn talks about his reasons for quitting Hollywood, his time as a jazz musician and conductor of some of the world's greatest symphony orchestras. The book also incorporates interviews with many of the people who helped shape Previn's life - his wives, his close personal and professional friends as well as those people who have more controversial opinions of the man. Julie Andrews, Blake Edwards, Gene Kelly, Jack Lemmon, Tom Stoppard, Stephen Sondheim, Mia Farrow and members of the London Symphony, Royal, Los Angeles and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras are just some of the people to voice their opinions of this great musical talent.