I REALLY like all of this performance but the first 28 seconds are a testament to the power and dynamics of this pianist. A show piece of a performance, throughout!

What a thrill it must be to be able to play this well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yvv6vLQfEw&feature=related

Bech

One of my favorite pianists from way back, partly because he happened to be one of the first real pianists I heard after I started sort of knowing what I was hearing but also because I love his elegance and stage presence.

And BTW here's a story of a time I ran into him during off hours....

That man is a pretty awesome pianist, I gotta say. He's also a pretty good teacher! I saw him give a master class at IU. I (sort of) know someone who studies with him and she said he's a great teacher, too.

Unfortunately, I heard him before I knew what I was hearing
When I was growing up, we had about 4 or 5 "classical" LPs, and Watts, Landowska, Van Cliburn, and Perahia all sounded more or less the same to me. (Although the harpsichord did sound different) I do remember sitting on the floor and looking at the portrait photograph in black and white on the Watts cover, 3/4 angle, with his hand under his chin, young and pensive looking, but what was actually on the album or what it sounded like... ?? Mom was the music standard-setter in the family so if she got a Watts album, I knew he must be important, but that was about the limit of my Watts-connoisseur-ness.

Edit: Wow this is tangential, but I just realized mom knew what she was doing-- Landowska for baroque, Perahia for classical, Watts for romantic! One piano sample of each! And the Van Cliburn Tchaikovsky was extra because I asked for it for Christmas. (I was very proud of myself for learning to spell Tchaikovsky, so for that reason I decided that he would be my favorite composer.)

Mark C,

That is a dandy story. Does anyone know if he still gives concerts? I read he's on the faculty at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

Bech

Absolutely. He still has a very active concert schedule.

He plays the LH melodic passage of Tremolo with the RH? Lame, he has more ability than that. I always loved his recording of these etudes, but this taints it.

Thanks for that. Not sure if he has a web site--believe I tried that before--but I'll try again or some other way to know about his schedule for this year.

Hadn't thought about it until now but I think he's #1 on my gotta see list.

Bech

Playing also the violin, I can safely say hearing Itzhak Perlman play the Trill Caprice (actually No. 6, I'm guessing for Liszt it was No 1?) is more impressive and beautiful. Separating melody and harmony in that with two hands just doesn't hit the same mastery as playing both with one hand.
Edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2rhoHS5VTI I should support my argument with data.

Mr. Watts will be playing in my neck of the woods next month. But I am supremely bummed ' cause I have a jazz gig booked on the night he is performing.......sniff sniff......

Andre Watts 2012 performances--that I know about. Maybe there are more.

Thu. Mar. 1, 8:00 pm--Atlanta Symphony Hall, Atlanta, Georgia
Fri. Mar. 2, 8:00 pm--As Above
Sun. Mar. 4, 3:00 pm--As Above

Fri. Mar. 30, 8:00 pm--LA Philharmonic, Walt Disney Concert Hall
Sat. Mar. 31, 2:00 pm--As Above
Sun. Apr. 1, 2:00 pm--As Above

Sat. Apr. 21, 8:00 pm--Tiles Center For The Performing Arts
Greenvale, NY

Perhaps this is all that's available at this time with several more performances after the last date shown here.

Ticket price for LA concert 87-400.00

Bech

hate histrionics

Best live performance of the gminor ballade I've ever heard a few years ago. I've long been a Watts fan. I admit I didn't click on the link (short on time).

Andre Watts has always been one of those very good pianists who's been coming around every two years or so for the past forty and more years--always prepared, never cancels, doesn't do goofy things--simply put, a very fine pianist. And so when he came to St. Paul about a month or so ago, I expected to hear a very fine concert.

But he was on fire. I've never heard him better, and the audience felt likewise, and so did the reviewers. It was an awesome all Liszt program. He seems to have entered a new realm late in his career.

If he's coming your way, don't miss him.

Tomasino

I ran across this recording last year. It's interesting that he plays all the left handed tremolos with his right hand along with the melody. Most pianists play that whole section with their left hand and occasionally reach up with right hand to grab some note. I learned it with all the melody notes in the right hand, tremolos in the left. Is this intended to be played with one hand or are they just showing off?
Watts is an incredibly powerful player.

Very excellent playing, almost at the D. Magnus level.

IMO there's no such thing.
Really!

It's all just notation. We play it however we can best play it -- as long as it suits the music. In fact, sometimes IMO playing it just the way it looks on the page is "lame."

...which expresses the composer's (or transcriber's, in this case) explicit desires.



Are we after integrity or convenience? It's played by the left hand in the original version. Why shouldn't it be played by the left hand in Liszt's transcription as he notates/specifies? Stretching your ability is the point of Paganini's original study and Liszt's transcription of it.



Sorry, but that makes no sense.

Well, it is an etude. Hence, my question above. I've not seen anything other than tradition that indicates it should all be played left-handed or one-handed. I have to use both.

That's part of what I absolutely disagree with.

There are at least some instances -- pretty clear instances, like in late Scriabin -- where the composer absolutely didn't mean stuff to be played by the hands that 'appear' to be indicated. I'm not saying that this necessarily would give us license to do whatever the heck we want with anything -- but IMO it eliminates what you said as an argument.


We have different ideas of "integrity" on this.


What original version are you talking about? I really can't imagine what you mean.

This shows how differently we think of these things. I honestly have not the slightest idea what you mean.


There you go again. I don't agree that this is what a score means.


See?

That's exactly how I feel about most of what you said!!

Tossing some examples when I think Brendan's ideas are right:

- 3rd movement of the Waldstein. I think the crossed hand notation is pretty explicit
- those opening jumps in op. 106 and 111 should be done by one hand and one hand only....otherwise that's pretty lame.

Was going to toss in that Scriabin's writing for individual hands is pretty clear and doesn't usually require hand redistribution...then I thought about how I redistributed some inner voices in op.42 no.5 and thought again.

I take that back. This fingering, if it is Liszt's, would indicate this to be played all with the left hand.

:rolleyes:

Here, let me help us out.....

Original version.

BTW, regarding this thing of doing stuff with 'the other hand'....

Not that this proves anything either, but....a couple of things:

-- HOROWITZ did huge amounts of it.

-- Seymour Bernstein, whom I studied with for a long time and who I think we can say has a pretty traditional view and is a huge stickler for following the score -- i.e. the music of the score -- is a big advocate of such things. He affectionately and slyly calls them "swindles."
I'm sure there are many places where he'd think it's unfaithful to the music to do it (as I do too!) -- but for the most part, he regards anything you can think of that enhances your ability to bring out the music as a good and creative solution.


(And I'd also mention the fact that WATTS HIMSELF does it as pretty much a proof that it's fine -- but I realize that for the purposes of this thread, that would be pretty circular.)

Anyway: The idea that we're 'supposed to' play stuff with whichever hand appears to be indicated on the page is just an opinion -- as is mine also.

EXACTLY!!!


So what really could he possibly have meant by the original version having it with the "left hand"....

Simple. If you play it your way and it's more musical or sounds better that way--that's the right way!

Composers as gods doesn't get it with me. Maybe that's why I lean more towards jazz.

Whatever's most musical. How simple can it get?

Bech