Saturday, April 14, 2012

TheaterJones: 'Conductor James Gaffigan and pianist André Watts turn out beautiful music of Grieg and Sibelius for the Dallas Symphony'



April 13, 2012
Dallas - There is little doubt that James Gaffigan is a fine conductor and well on his way to being one of the greats of his generation. The last time he was in Dallas, he also did an exemplary job of conducting the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.


Pianist André Watts burst on the concert scene, as a discovery of Leonard Bernstein, with a performance of Liszt's first piano concerto at a Young People's Concert, which was televised Jan. 15, 1963. Watts is what we would now call an "army brat," the son of a Hungarian mother, Maria Alexandra Gusmits, a pianist, and an African-American father, Herman Watts, a U.S. Army noncommissioned officer. He was also a racial pioneer on the concert stage; the Voting Rights Act was only passed in 1965. Now, he has surpassed all of these descriptions and only has one remaining: great musician, and one of the best pianists of the era. 

No comments:

Post a Comment