Star-Ledger talks to André Watts about May 15 concert

The Star-Ledger chats with legendary pianist André Watts, an audience favorite who returns to the Orchestra for a special program in collaboration with NJPAC in Newark:

One of the most beloved pianists of his generation, with a career that has spanned more than 50 years, André Watts continues to dazzle his fans with ever-deepening interpretations of venerated classics.

The pianist joins the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Friday as the soloist for Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 and Grieg's Piano Concerto. Conductor Peter Bay leads a program that also includes Mozart's "Così fan Tutte" Overture and Stravinsky's "Four Norwegian Moods."

At age 16, Watts rose to fame performing with the New York Philharmonic's Young People's Concerts under Leonard Bernstein. He went on to become a top soloist, winning such honors as the National Medal of the Arts and the Avery Fisher Prize. His most recent appearance with the NJSO, in 2012, featured an account of Brahms' formidable Piano Concerto No. 2 that had remarkable nuance and ample excitement.

Now 69, he continues to play repertoire milestones that have become deeply ingrained in his mind and his hands but continue to evolve.

"People grow and their attitudes about life in general change and that affects how you view the music of the composers you're playing," Watts says. "You relearn a piece and certain basics remain the same.

"I think the big thing that happens for most musicians who started playing when they were young is that things get simplified. You're always aiming for directness. I think as you get older, like in life, overview becomes more compelling and more of a priority and detail maybe gets more refined and the execution becomes more secondary or assumed."

Beethoven's elegant fourth concerto is his most lyrical, with a middle movement Watts describes as brief but profound.

"It's the soloist as persuader, subduer of the powerful, aggressive forces of the orchestra without raising the voice," he says.

Grieg's Piano Concerto, by contrast, announces its drama from its first bold chords in octaves that descend the piano.

"It's an awfully well-written work and it has really everything that one could want in a piano concerto in the general terms – it is a virtuoso solo vehicle as it happens; it has beautiful melodic lines; it has wonderful interplay with the orchestra," says Watts.

"I always say that all piano concertos even Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff are just chamber music with large forces, and it's true for the Grieg also."

The piece is one of the most accessible in the repertoire, but Watts believes it does not deserve "the pops stigma."

"Curiously enough, Rachmaninoff thought that the Grieg was a perfect piano concerto," he says. "I think he was right. It's a wonderful symphonic piece with a giant piano part and great solos in the orchestra."

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While he has picked up more and more insight into the masterworks and live performance as he has continued to play, Watts is humble when asked the secret of his career longevity and success.

"Good fortune," he says. "Hopefully, communicating something that people want to hear again in your performances."

Read the full interview at nj.com.