Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Yuja Wang dazzles in London

Yuja Wang played to a capacity audience in London's Queen Elizabeth Hall last night, and delighted the crowd with a dazzling and colorful display of fireworks.

Some people here with long memories may remember that in my thread on Fauré last year, I mentioned that Yuja Wang would be playing that composer in this concert. Well, she's changed her program - it's now all-Russian except for a German interloper, Beethoven, whose Op.27/1 she played with great poise (and innigkeit in the brief slow movement). Some people in the audience might have wished for Op.27/2 (Moonlight) instead, but personally I was grateful to hear one of Beethoven's least-performed Sonatas so beautifully played.

But she opened her concert with 'a 100m sprint' as I heard one punter comment - Rachmaninoff's Etude-tableau Op.39/6. Hearing her play this piece with such gossamer lightness yet with perfect evenness in the rapid passages (not to mention exquisite timing), then a little later, pummelling the chords and torrents of notes in Op.39/5 without drowning the melody in the middle reminded me how much such musical effects rely on her truly astounding technique (which really does begin where most others' leave off), which gives full rein to her vivid imagination because she knows she can pull off anything she wants to.

The colors she brought out in Scriabin's Sonata No.5 make Hamelin, Ashkenazy and even Richter pale in comparison - the last time I heard such incandescence in a Scriabin Sonata was when Pletnev played Sonata No.4 as an encore (!) many years ago. And her final offering, Prokofiev's Sonata No.6, more than makes up in verve and imagination what it may lack in sheer brutality compared to some less subtle pianists - right up there with Pogorelich and Lugansky.

And her encore? Horowitz's Carmen Variations (based on the Gypsy Song from Act 2), which sent everyone home with a smile, shaking their heads in wonder and admiration...

All Russian composers? God...

For those interested in such things, I'd add that she wore a very long (so long that I wondered how she was going to pedal...) iridescent blue gown with long side slits - but not quite as long as those on Angelina Jolie's gown that she wore for the Oscars .

And then (shades of Eileen Joyce?) she changed into a shocking red backless gown for the second half. Not the miniskirt of Hollywood Bowl fame, but very distinctive nevertheless. Was she reminding us that we were hearing a War Sonata? Or that Prokofiev had a hard time under Stalin's communist rule? (Note to self: must stop such irrelevant psychoanalysis....)

Great comments, Bennevis. Thanks for reporting on the recital.

Yes Bennevis......brilliant reveu and observations. We need pianist like her on the circuit.

George Hall at the Guardian saw it a bit differently:


"For her appearance in the Southbank Centre's International Piano Series, the Chinese pianist Yuja Wang chose a mostly Russian programme, spanning late-Romantics Scriabin and Rachmaninov through to the Soviet-era Prokofiev, with one of Beethoven's sonatas nodding towards the Viennese classics.

Slender and elegant when seated at the keyboard, Wang scarcely moves her body while her fingers and forearms fly in all directions. Her opening Rachmaninov group emphasised her astonishing technical command. Scarcely a note escaped her in three Etudes-Tableaux and the Elégie from the early Morceaux de Fantaisie, though in complex textures she didn't always separate out what was thematically important from what was merely accompaniment. Her loud playing had a tendency towards the gruff and occasionally the brash.

But her security was never for a second in doubt. Beethoven's Sonata Quasi Una Fantasia, Op 27 No 1 – one of the pieces in which he comes closest to setting down on paper his famous improvisations – sounded easy, though this was a performance that never sought for depth beneath its pristine surface. In Scriabin's volatile Fifth Sonata, Wang's great sweeps around the keyboard were immaculately achieved; yet once again the expressive intentions behind all the idiosyncratic harmonies and strange, evanescent gestures went largely unexplored.

She changed from a dark blue dress to red for the Prokofiev in the second half. His Sixth Sonata is a monstrous musical mechanism, frequently wayward, often brutally abrasive, occasionally slyly humorous, and mostly written at the very edge of what is possible to articulate with just 10 fingers. Wang certainly had all the notes, but the work's gigantic range of character was merely sketched in. Only in her encore – Vladimir Horowitz's crazily virtuosic Carmen Variations – did her jaw-dropping dexterity combine with sufficient musicality to come fully alive

There's a youtube video of Wang playing the development section of the first movement of the Prokofiev 6th. Tempo very fast. Well done-- quite brutal and effective.

-J

speaking of London performances... anyone else have tickets to Valentina Lisetsa at RAH? i'm not quite sure what to expect. Her technique is astounding, and she plays certain things very eloquently... but much of her virtuouso playing sounds like a ukranian robot... perhaps with a secret "kill" button like Eliza Dushku in Dollhouse.

Thanks for that.

I frequently disagree with the Guardian's critics over piano recitals . It would be interesting to see if the other broadsheets have different opinions.

But I've already added Yuja Wang to my very short list of 'pianists not to be missed at any cost' on the strength of what I saw & heard in this concert.

I hope she doesn't play that Rachmaninov "Piano concerto no.5 for solo piano " Trash !!!

I'm still kicking myself for missing a recital she gave near me last year... I don't recall the whole program, but it included Prokofiev 6 and a Scriabin sonata (either 5 or 9). She is a phenomenal artist.

Here is one of my favorite YT videos, Yuja Wang at age 10 playing The Cowherd's Flute, composed by He Luting.

I don't care for Wuja Yang.

I think I know where you're coming from. I was listening to her Petrushka, and it has great fire and flair and yes, she has a good tone palette, but that's all I heard. Weissenberg and Gilels for me, please!

Are there any performances of her playing Bach, Mozart, or Beethoven (and not when she was really young, but recently??) I can't find any on YouTube, and I wonder if that's telling...

You may have a point. I found this very un-Mozartian Mozart (Volodos' arrangement of the Turkish March). There's much key banging going on. And, the videographer was either drunk or couldn't see over the person in front.

she seems to LOVE the russian composers. sorry, but besides tchaikovsky the russian composers are BLECHHH. thats just me, im sure im gonna offend some rach worshipers... but anyway - yes she seems to love the russians and i hardly see her play european composers. shes robotic to me too. at least lang lang isnt robotic. but hey - what to i know eh? now im rambling

what specifically about the Russians do you dislike?

"... the Russian composers..." covers a lot of varying territory, don't you think?

i've never been able to get into them. ive always been pulled in to other composers like chopin, debussy, mozart, liszt.. all uncontrolabley pulled in. ive TRIED to listen to russian composers and they just dont do it for me besides pytor T.

I agree, too much of everything, except class, and musicality .