Actually, no, for those who asked, the most famous name I ever came across back in the heady student days of stewarding at the Warwick Arts Centre wasn't Simon Rattle. It was when Andre Previn came with the London Symphony Orchestra.
And the stewards who worked front of house (FOH) never really rubbed shoulders with the musirati. It was the back of house (BOH) folks who did. The FOH scum like us merely clipped tickets and then got to watch the concert for free after that.
Anyway, Andre Previn. One of the FOH managers, a dear sweetheart of a man, was having kittens over how to address Andre Previn. "Do I call him Mr Preh-veen? Or is it Mr Prah-vahn?" He worried that the former would seem too uncultured but the latter might be too toffee-nosed.
Why not address him as Maestro, was my suggestion. That way, he skirted the surname altogether.
In the end, it was Masetro Andre Previn himself who solved the problem. He strode into the BOH briefing, stuck out his hand and said: "Hi, I'm Andy."
2 comments:
Was the "dear sweetheart" Will Day by any chance?
And by the way, sorry to name drop, but since we're all at it, I met Murray Perahia and the Amadeus String Quartet and one of the Chung Trio (the pianist chap). Yes, got up-close-and-personal too - I got pressganged into page turning for them. I was a quivering wreck by the end of the concerts.
Yes, Will, the dearest sweetheart of a boss ever. Who prayed that Andre Segrovia -- after staggering to his chair on stage -- wouldn't drop dead until after final curtain.
And yes, I remember you page turning, but I didn't realise it took so much out of you -- I thought you enjoyed it!
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