ARTS
Monday, September 28, 1987
The Michigan Daily
Page 7
Royal
Philharmonic to
By Ari Schneider
It has been a very good week for
classical music lovers. Last Monday,
Leonard Bernstein conducted the
Vienna Philharmonic; tonight Andre
Previn will conduct the prestigious
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of
London at Hill Auditorium at 8 p.m.
as part of the University Musical
Society's Choral Union Series.
The concert will include three
pieces: the Overture to Beatrice and
Benedict by Berlioz; La Mer by
Claude Debussy; and Edward Elgar's
Symphony No.].
Andre Previn is an artist known
for his versatility. Before taking the
position of Principal Conductor with
the Royal Philharmonic, Previn dis-
tinguished himself as a conductor,
composer, pianist, recording artist,
television personality, and author.
After studying conducting with
Pierre Monteux and composition
with Joseph Achron and Mario
Castelnuovo-Tedesco, he began his
professional music career by
working in Hollywood film studios
as a conductor, arranger, a n d
composer, eventually winning a
total of four Academy Awards. He
also found early success as a
professional jazz pianist. This jazz
talent would later be combined with
other great classical musicians, such
as Itzak Pearlman, to create a
Grammy Award nominated jazz
'American Pictures-
Exposing the ugly side
album.
In 1960, Previn began a
symphonic conducting career.
Within twenty years he was
receiving acclaim as Music Director
of three major orchestras: the
Houston Orchestra (1967-69), the
London Symphony (1968-79) and
the Pittsburgh Symphony (1976-
1985). Previn was also nominated
for two Emmy awards for a PBS
television series. This series Previn
and the Pittsburgh Symphony tried
to give behind-the-scenes insight
about the soloists' creative process
of making music as well as the
soloists performing great pieces of
music.
Previn's works as composer
include the musicals Coco and The
Good Companions , a piano
concerto, two suites of preludes
commisioned and -performed by
Vladimir Ashkenazy, song cycle for
mezzo-soprano Dame Janet Baker,
and a highly acclaimed music drama
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour,
made in collaboration with playwrite
Tom Stoppard.
As a recording artist, Previn has
already over 150 recordings with
major orchestras including the
London Symphony, Vienna
grac
Philharmonic, Pittsburgh
Symphony, and the Philadelphia
Orchestra. Previn's projects with the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
include recording Tchaikovsky's
Fifth Symphony, Rachmaninov's
Second Symphony, a complete
Elgar cycle, Beethoven's piano
concertos with Emual Ax, and
Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Also,
Previn conducted the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) on
the orchestra's own record label
(RPO Records), which was launched
in 1986. The record label is run
solely by the orchestra members.
Besides the RPO's acclaimed
recordings, the orchestra is one of
the most highly esteemed
performing orchestras in the world,
appearing annually in more than 200
concerts at home and abroad. The
RPO has appeared at most leading
international festivals throughout the
world.
Under the patronage of Queen
Elizabeth, the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra was founded by Sir
Thomas Beecham and gave its
premiere concert on September 15,
1946. Sir Thomas held the title of
Music Director from 1946 until his
death in 1961. He was succeeded by
Rudolf Kempe, Antal Dorati, and
Walter Weller. Recent tours include
a three week visit to Japan and
South Korea, a four week coast-to-
coast tour of North America, and
trips throughout Europe.
Since 1963 the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra has been
completely governed by its
members, each of whom hold shares
in RPO Ltd.; most other orchestras
are governed by a board of directors
who are not musicians. The title
"Royal" in the orchestra's name was
conferred upon the RPO by the
Queen in 1966.
Although one might be tempted
to check out some records by Andre
Previn and the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra, one should definitely not
pass up this chance to see these
accomplished musicians in concert
tonight.
Ticket prices range from $10 to
$24 and are available at the Musical
Society's Burton Tower Ticket
Office between the hours of 9 and
4:30 p.m. For more information call-
764-2538.
Hill
By Peter Markus
What is American Pictures ?
Those who are vaguely familiar
with one side of American Pictures
simply say that it is a book of
photographs, accompanied by brief
narrations, focusing on the socially
enslaved lives of the morally,
deprived. Some may claim that it is
a rather long and enduring multi-
media s li d e s h o w present-
ation/documentary concentrating on
the effects of today's oppression.
Still others declare that it is one
man's journey into Hell crudely
captured by the sometimes unfocused
lens of a used Canon Dial. American
Pictures is all of this and much,
much more.
The person behind American
Pictures is the beard-braided Jacob
Holdt, a Danish vagabond who, in
1970, fled Danish society and drifted
over into the borders of Canada.
After spending a year there, Holdt
decided to cross another border, this
time venturing into America, a land
that always struck him as being a
"boring white middle class country."
After first stopping in Port Huron
and Detroit, Michigan, Holdt
purchased a bus ticket to Chicago,
where his consequent journey across
48 states and 113,750 miles began.
It is this odyssey that Hold t
depicts in both his slideshow
presentation and retrospective book.
Many of those who experience
Holdt's grueling, mind-spearing
account captured in American
Pictures will undoubtedly be
changed and haunted by the stark
realism of how the other half of
America lives.
For example, in one entry Holdt
remarks: "My travels through the
slavery-like conditions of the South
resembled more and more a journey
in internal colonialism. Here they
work, in heat, dust, and soot with
razor-sharp machetes. Fingers and
toes are often chopped off. After an
exhausting day's work, the men are
driven in trucks like cattle to camps
often enclosed by barbed wire and
'No Trespassing' signs. Inside the
camps, (they live with) over 100 to
a room ...(and) are immediately fired
for talking with whites ... The
prevalence of slave camps seems to
be spreading in the 1980s."
The juxtaposition of a white
man's view on integration is shown
in another entry where a man being
interviewed says, "I've never had
anything against niggers. They are a
different race of people..."
In the words of its conceiver,
American Pictures is "a kind of
diary to remember the people who
came to mean something to me."
Yet from these startling
observations, you know that it is
something more than simply one
man's diary. Even if it only changes
your. individual outlook on the
conditions of this country, it will be
worthwhile to experience. It is the
only way to witness what it's like in
the Hell Holdt reveals without
actually being there. To call it a
masterpiece would be less than
flattering. To call it anything but
"American Pictures: A personal
journey through the American
underclass," would be inadequate.
Why not render it simply as being
an important investigation exposing
an ugly side of America.
American Pictures will be shown
tonight at 6:30 in Rackham
Auditorium. Admission is free but
please bring canned food for the
homeless.
THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO
BECOm"MING A NURSE IN THE ARMY
And they're both repre-
sented by the insignia you wear
as a member of the Army Nurse
I lCorps. The caduceus on the left
means you're part of a health care
system in which educational and
career advancement are the rule,
not the exception. The gold bar
on the right means you command respect as an Army officer. If you're
earning a BSN, write: Army Nurse Opportunities, P.O. Box 7713,
Clifton, NJ 07015. Or call toll free 1-800-USA-ARMY
ARMY NURSE CORPS. BE ALLYOU CAN BE.
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Why Settle
For Anything Less
Than The Best?
The Michigan Ensian yearbook,
recipient of an All American
rating from the associated
Collegiate Press, nearly
doubled its sales figures
last year.
Find out why -
Order the 1988 yearbook.
UAC/SOPH SHOW-
presents
* t
,,,fi " " M a
Mass
Meeting
Monday,
Sept. 28
7:30 pm
0