But what I got in that first year, I think, was the real complete - I mean, complete hedonistic, sort of an unalloyed pleasure of playing the instrument, just sitting at the piano and running around with your fingers on it. And she got me to a piano teacher, and then I had to do scales and had to be told that, well, you know, don't you think that's a lot of different sounds if you don't move your foot, you know, off the pedal? And, yeah, sure, it took a little time. So, you know, he - now he should study with someone. And then when I came to the United States, when I came to Philadelphia, then my mother thought, well, it seems like he has some talent. WATTS: It is true, of course, that then when I - this was all in Germany. TERRY GROSS: People worry if you do that, you're going to develop bad habits that will be very difficult. You know, and I did that for about a year. And, you know, it makes all those - and I say this with no sarcasm - all those decent, hardworking, long-suffering piano teachers - it makes them shudder when I say that, you know, I put the pedal down for a page at a time just to listen to all that sound building up, you know, and rattled around a mile a minute playing everything but the right notes. And actually, I'm, in retrospect, always very thankful about the way I started playing the piano, although it's the unconventional way. Watts spoke to Terry Gross in 1985, and they begin their conversation talking about those early lessons.ĪNDRE WATTS: There was not a lot of discipline involved, so it was just fun. She's credited with teaching Watts to play the piano beginning at the age of 6. His mother was an amateur pianist from Hungary. His father was a noncommissioned officer in the Army. He was born in Nuremberg, Germany, and later raised in Philadelphia. MOSLEY: Watts brought electricity and emotion to his performances, sometimes humming, stomping his feet and bobbing his head as he played. (SOUNDBITE OF NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC PERFORMANCE OF BRAHMS' "PIANO CONCERTO NO.
2 (Haydn)" with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic.
Here he is performing Brahms' "Concerto No. Watts rose to international fame after that performance, recording extensively with orchestras in the United States and Europe. He became famous at 16 after performing for composer Leonard Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic on a nationally televised program called "The Young People's Concert." Bernstein would later call on Watts to perform a concert in place of Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, who had fallen ill. Watts is known as one of the first Black superstars in classical music. Classical pianist Andre Watts died last week at the age of 77.
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