[ Sony & BMG Music / 10 CD Box Set ]
Release Date: Tuesday 20 September 2016
This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.
On January 15, 1963, sixteen-year-old American pianist André Watts dazzled television audiences with Liszt's E-flat Concerto on a New York Philharmonic Young People's Concert with Leonard Bernstein, bringing inspiration and hope to a diverse population of music students. When Glenn Gould cancelled a Philharmonic appearance a few weeks later, Watts was called to substitute. His triumphant performances launched an international career.
Long having fulfilled that early promise, Watts remains one of the world's most successful, consistent and communicative musicians as he enters his seventieth year in 2016. To celebrate this milestone, Sony Classical releases a 12-CD set, André Watts -The Complete Columbia Album Collection. It documents the pianist's progression from teenage to the youthful maturity revealed in his 1980 Tokyo concerts. In addition to concertos by Chopin, Liszt, Franck, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, Watts' solo Columbia recordings showcase his natural affinity for a wide gamut of works and styles, as in the elegant virtuosity of the pianist's Liszt Sonata, his direct and virile Beethoven interpretations, his affectionate Schubert, his delicately nuanced Debussy and his upbeat, idiomatic Gershwin.
Although thrust into the spotlight early, André Watts allowed himself time to develop and ripen, striking a sensible balance between performing and studying. He enrolled at the Peabody Conservatory, where he worked with Leon Fleisher. At 20 he embarked on his first world tour, made his first extensive Japanese tour in 1974, and, in 1976, gave the first complete American live televised solo recital on "Live from Lincoln Center."
André Watts - The Complete Columbia Album Collection features twelve CDs in a clamshell box with booklet, including notes by Jed Distler, full discographical information and archival photos. The contents and sleeves replicate each album's original LP packaging. All of the recordings are newly remastered, with 5 LPs released for the first time on CD.
• The first ever collection of Watts's complete recordings for Columbia Masterworks in a 12-CD original jackets collection
• Great concertos by Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Liszt
• Major solo works by Liszt, Chopin, Beethoven, Schubert, Gershwin and others
• 5 LPs for the first time on CD, mastered in 24 bit / 96 kHz from the original analogue tapes
includes
Beethoven:
Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10 No. 3
Für Elise (Bagatelle in A minor, WoO59)
Variations (32) on an Original Theme in C minor, WoO 80
Rondo a capriccio in G major, Op. 129 'Rage over a lost penny'
Brahms:
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 83
Intermezzo in E minor, Op. 119 No. 2
Intermezzo in C major, Op. 119 No. 3
Chopin:
Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21
Nocturne No. 13 in C minor, Op. 48 No. 1
Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35 'Marche funèbre'
Fantasia in F minor, Op. 49
Étude Op. 10 No. 1 in C major
Étude Op. 25 No. 7 in C sharp minor
Étude Op. 25 No. 12 in C minor
Debussy:
Children's Corner
Franck, C:
Symphonic Variations for piano & orchestra, M46
Gershwin:
Rhapsody in Blue
Preludes (3)
Swanee
Somebody Loves Me
Who Cares?
I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise
The Man I Love
Nobody But You
Do It Again
's Wonderful
Oh, Lady Be Good!
Sweet and Low-Down
That Certain Feeling
Liza
I Got Rhythm (from Girl Crazy & An American in Paris)
Liszt:
Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, S124
Les Préludes, symphonic poem No. 3, S97
Totentanz, S126 for piano & orchestra
Grandes Études de Paganini (6), S. 141
Sonetto 104 del Petrarca (Années de pèlerinage II, S. 161 No. 5)
Rachmaninov:
Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30
Ravel:
Oiseaux tristes (Miroirs No. 2)
Schubert:
Sonata in A for piano Op. post. 143
Fantasie in C major, D760 'Wanderer'
Tchaikovsky:
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23