PHILHARMONIC SET FOR BERLIN

Andre Previn and the Los Angeles Philharmonic will begin their first European tour together on May 1 and 2, when they participate in the opening of a six-month festival celebrating Berlin’s 750th birthday, it was announced at a Music Center press conference on Thursday.

Following two festival-opening programs by the Berlin Philharmonic led by Herbert von Karajan in the Neue Philharmonie, Previn (a native of Berlin) will conduct concerts devoted to music by Strauss, Schoenberg, Debussy, Korngold and Ravel, plus his own “Principals.” Philharmonic players Sidney Weiss, Ronald Leonard and Heiichiro Ohyama will serve as soloists.

Los Angeles is Berlin’s only sister city.

Remaining stops on the 25-day, 18-concert tour include Bonn, Hamburg, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Florence, Madrid, Barcelona, Monte Carlo, Ghent, Cologne, Amsterdam, Munich, Vienna and London.

The original itinerary included a concert in East Berlin, said Ernest Fleischmann, executive director of the Philharmonic. But that event was canceled when officials of that city were informed a substitute conductor would not be available for Previn who, Fleischmann noted, had fallen into disfavor with Soviet bloc countries since the premiere of his “Every Good Boy Deserves Favour.”