MUSIC REVIEW : Andre Watts: Gifted but Inconsistent

A generous and varied program made Andre Watts’ latest Ambassador Auditorium appearance--the American pianist’s 13th solo recital in the Pasadena hall (he has also played chamber music there, on three separate occasions)--distinctive.

Still, as sometimes happens with this gifted but inconsistent artist, the performances proved variable.

In his eternal--it seems--search for spontaneity and novelty, Watts has at times gone over the top in matters of detailing and musical emphasis.

This time, in an agenda devoted to no fewer than seven composers--Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Janacek, Berio, Liszt and Rachmaninoff--there was very little overplaying but quite a lot of understatement. More crucially, much of the performance emerged distracted and unfocused.

An acknowledged and widely admired Schubert specialist, Watts on this occasion repeated the A-minor Sonata, D. 784, so well-remembered from previous visits. This time, passion seemed in short supply until the finale.

Another of the 46-year-old pianist’s signature pieces, the G-minor Ballade of Chopin, went in the other direction, this time receiving from Watts a more cohesive and integrated--if still sometimes emotionally scattered--performance than some filed away in memory.

The high points came in the evening’s second half, wherein Janacek’s “1905” Sonata and Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme of Corelli both received kaleidoscopic, colorful and pointed readings, performances limited only--but measurably--by the short projective range of the Yamaha piano Watts played.

Despite general approbation from a large audience, the pianist eschewed the playing of encores.