Music Reviews : Watts in Piano Recital at Ambassador Auditorium

Some things never change. Andre Watts still sings loudly to himself while playing the piano, still pounds the floor with his feet when he gets excited and still plays Schubert’s “Wanderer” Fantasy with the passion of one who just discovered it.

And, as he proved for the 12th time at Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena on Sunday night, he gives fascinating recitals that his public attends loyally.

The latest crowd of Watts’ fans had no reason to be disappointed at this appearance. The 41-year-old American pianist played sonatas by Mozart and Schubert, the aforementioned “Wanderer” Fantasy, the four pieces of Brahms’ Opus 119 and a selection of the same composer’s impassioned and finger-busting Hungarian Dances.

Except that he had chosen a piano that one suspects could not do justice to the full range of his abilities, Watts’ performance proved again admirable in style, musical thrust and pianistic polish.

He sailed jauntily through Mozart’s Sonata in F, K. 332, gave a full measure of seriousness and depth to Schubert’s Sonata in A minor, D. 784, and the following Fantasy, explored the mezzotints of Opus 119 sensitively, then attacked six of the Hungarian Dances with the ferocity of a native--reminding us that Watts’ forebears on his mother’s side are Hungarian.

Brahms is no help in this irresistible but thorny music; it truly has too many notes, and there is no way to make it sound as easy as it ought to be. Nevertheless, Watts grappled bravely with all those fistfuls, and triumphed over them. But at least one listener left the hall exhausted.