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Andre Watts Fires Brilliant Opening Salvo in Liszt Anniversary Fireworks
| Article
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10003 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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4 / 1986 |
1,231 Words |
| Author
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Tom Pniewski
Tom Pniewski is a musicologist at Hunter College in New York. |
Pianist Andre Watts, who has always been a bit partial to Liszt, paid brilliant tribute to the great composer in his New Year Avery Fisher Hall recital February 5. The program was an early tribute to Liszt on the centenary of his death, which will be marked officially on July 31 of this year.
Watts' choice of program was a work of art in itself. He carefully selected pieces that spanned the entire length of Liszt's fifty-odd-year creative career. The first half, for example, included the youthful "Au lac de Wallenstadt," written when the master was only twenty-four. The second half brought such unfamiliar and experimental works as "En Reve," composed when he was already in his seventies, and near death. There were the expected virtuoso display pieces for the general listener, including the brilliant Paganini Etudes; and there were delicate miniatures for the Liszt connoisseur--"Schlaflos, Frage und Antwort" among them. The massive centerpiece of the entire program was the epochal Sonata in B minor.
Watts comes to Liszt naturally--it seems to be in his blood, and might well be inherited from his Hungarian mother. He was born in Nuremberg, Germany, the son of a black American soldier and his pianist-bride. At four, he began music study, and his talent was soon apparent. Beginning with the violin, he switched to piano, and his mother was his first teacher. (She would remain dominant in his musical life for many years, and would storm backstage after concerts with her comments!) When young Andre was eight, his father was transferred to the United States, and he began schooling in Philadelphia. He was no model student in the regular curriculum--he played pinball and hooky too often for that--and bounced from school to school. Several schools
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