Gordon Watson (pianist)

Gordon Watson AM (28 February 1921 – 16 April 1999) was an Australian classical pianist and teacher. He taught at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music from 1964 to 1986, retiring as Head of the Keyboard Department.

Gordon Charles Watson was born in Parkes, New South Wales in 1921. He served with the Australian Imperial Force for four years in World War II.

He studied piano under Laurence Godfrey Smith in Sydney, and later had advanced studies at Mills College, Oakland, California with Egon Petri (piano), and Darius Milhaud (composition).

As early as 1943, commentators such as Neville Cardus were noticing that his piano playing, while showing great skill and promise, revealed the soul of someone other than a performer (Cardus suggested composing or conducting might be Watson's natural bents).

Watson spent some years living in the United Kingdom as a touring performer. On 22 October 1951, to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the birth of Franz Liszt, he performed the complete Transcendental Études in a concert at the Wigmore Hall. On that occasion he also premiered Humphrey Searle's Piano Sonata, Op. 21, written for the occasion. (The sonata was loosely based on Liszt's Sonata in B minor and has been described as "probably, both the finest and most original piano work ever produced by a British composer".) Watson later recorded the sonata, but the recording was quickly deleted. In 1957 he was able to introduce Searle to his teacher Egon Petri. Watson wrote the sleeve notes for the LP recording of classic Egon Petri performances issued by EMI in 1967 as number 7 in its Great Instrumentalists series.

In 1951 he was chosen by Constant Lambert to play the difficult piano part in the premiere of his final ballet, Tiresias. In late 1952 he gave the premiere performance of Darius Milhaud's 1st Piano Concerto, in London.

...
Wikipedia