Andre Watts gives dazzling concert

The high point of the performance was a set of three Chopin pieces.
By ROBERT ROLLIN
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
YOUNGSTOWN -- The opening week celebrations for the new Eleanor Beecher Flad Pavilion and Ford Family Recital Hall were crowned Saturday night with a magnificent piano recital by stellar pianist Andre Watts.
Discovered and launched at age 16 by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, Watts has had a top-level career for nearly two generations. Now at the height of his powers, he played with flawless technical skill and stunning expressiveness.
The evening's high point was the set of three Chopin pieces. Frederic Chopin is considered the master of romantic piano music, because he wrote supremely well for the instrument, and wrote little else.
The G Minor Ballade, Op. 23, was absolutely gorgeous in its phrasing and dynamics. Watts had an amazing knack of balancing the main voice, the subsidiary voice and the remaining music to produce an expressive musical whole. The long melodic upbeats were perfectly executed, and the phrase accents were consistently graceful and appropriate. His nuances of tempo were always apt, and he maintained rhythmic clarity throughout the performance.
Beautiful balance
Watts brought out the singing melody in the Nocturne, Op. 27, No. 1 in C sharp minor with & eacute;lan, again balancing main voices and accompaniment beautifully.
The Etude Op. 25, No. 7 in C sharp minor is a mixture of lyricism and pyrotechnical passage work. Watts played it with great expression, tossing off the parenthetical rapid passages effortlessly.
As if further to affirm his affection for Chopin, Watts chose the first Etude in A flat from the Op. 25 set as his only encore, correctly shading the important melody notes and carefully balancing the subsidiary ones, all the while maintaining dynamic variety.
It was announced at the outset that Watts helped choose the two new pianos for the facility. Watts remarked that upon his arrival Thursday he discovered problems with the new piano, including difficulty in repeated notes and some notes not sounding. Piano technician Mark Shengle, Watts explained, worked tirelessly until concert time to iron out the difficulties fully, and deserved great praise.
Expressive playing
Watts played two Mozart Rondos, K.485 in D major, and K.511 in A minor, with understated grace. The A minor is especially expressive, and Watts displayed an uncanny ability to interpret the composer's ideas without intruding in any way.
Beethoven's intense Sonata in D, Op. 10, No. 3 was equally effective. Especially notable was the long slow-movement crescendo, yet another example of Watts' powerful, expressive playing.
The Schubert A minor Sonata, Op. 143, was also outstanding, particularly in the warm semplice playing of the third-movement second theme.
Watts closed the concert with Ravel's "Oiseaux triste" (Sad Birds) and "La Vallee des Cloches" (Valley of the Bells) from Miroirs, and Debussy's "Danse." All three movements were elegant.