The inclusion of the American pianist Andre Watts in Philips’s Great Pianists of the Twentieth Century series will, I suspect, cause a few raised eyebrows. Certainly, given some notable absentees – where are Annie Fischer and Simon Barere? – Watts is a surprising choice, and having listened to this set he still strikes me as a marginal selection.
Actually, much of the playing on these two discs is very fine. There is some dazzling yet thoughtful Liszt, including Totentanz, and a spirited performance of the First Piano Concerto, a recording made when Watts was just 17, on the heels of his successful debut with Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, where he deputized for the indisposed Glenn Gould. Watts’s Liszt has real musical and expressive substance, and his pyrotechnics are directed purely towards musical goals. The solo Liszt items, especially, are deeply considered, and while such an approach makes a change from the unthinking ‘smash and grab’ Liszt-playing so commonly heard, these works surely need more sparkle and dynamism. Watts’s Schubert Wanderer Fantasy is strong-boned, but hard-driven at the expense of tonal beauty and (in the slow movement) a singing line. Although he is capable of wonderful delicacy – the right-hand filigree runs from 10'40'' in the Schubert are marvellously done – Watts often seems reluctant to utilize colour for expressive variety. Indeed, his Beethoven is crisp and characterful, but just slightly austere, and I find his Gershwin Songbook rather charmless: where is the warmth, the spirit, the smoke-filled atmosphere? However, Debussy’s Children’s Corner suite is more persuasively nuanced, and the smattering of Chopin Etudes shows a fearless technique, and, especially in the final C minor Etude, a sense of throwing caution to the wind that is far removed from his solo Liszt. The most arresting playing, however, is surely found in Rachmaninov’s Corelli Variations, where Watts is by turns serene, playful, brooding and mischievous, his tonal palette at its most varied and responsive.
So, these discs offer rather a mixed bag, and this is not one of the indispensables of this series. At his best, Watts is well worth hearing, especially in the Rachmaninov, Chopin and some of the Liszt. But I’m afraid I find myself returning to my opening thoughts: although any list of the greatest pianists of the century is of course subjective, particularly at the peripheries, I’m at a loss to explain the inclusion of Watts ahead of the likes of Egon Petri, Simon Barere and, especially, Annie Fischer.'