Saturday, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra dedicated Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto to the victims of the recent airline crash and their families. This is the sort of piece that is good for something like that. As Music Director JoAnn Falletta put it in a brief speech, the music is intensely spiritual.

For this occasion, Andre Watts was the perfect pianist.

Watts plays as if he has the weight of the world on his shoulders. He walks out on stage with hardly a glance at the audience — that’s his style, and he pulls it off. He wears the old-fashioned tails, which I love. He sits down heavily on the piano bench, brow furrowed, head down.

His performance Saturday was deeply satisfying. It was the culmination of a program that tended toward gravity, although there were moments of light. Opening the program was “A Prayer for Spring,” by the young Amherst composer Chris Rogerson, currently a student at the Curtis Institute. Bravo to him for creating a piece people could enjoy on first hearing. This five-minute piece charmed. Source

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