Search - Yuja Wang :: Sonatas & Etudes

A born star, some predictable choices mixed with some obscur

Erik Ketzan | Orbis Tertius | 03/12/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"First of all, I recently had the pleasure of seeing the 22-year-old Yuja live, and she's an eye-popping performer, with rock-solid technique and hands that seem to move like kung fu. She has ended recent concerts with encores including Cziffra's Flight of the Bumblebee and Volodos's beefed-up Turkish March, both of which can be seen on YouTube and convey the excitement she brings to live performance. She's already proven herself a rising star in a field badly in need of some new blood.



The two major pieces on this CD, the Liszt Sonata in B Minor and Chopin Sonata 2, impress but are predictable choices.



Yuja joins a number of other up-and-coming pianists in recent years to include Liszt's piano sonata in B Minor on their debut or second CD: David Fray (David Fray Plays Schubert & Liszt) and Yundi Li (Yundi Li: Liszt), for instance. And the reason is simple: it shows the world you mean business. It's difficult, displays a wide range of piano technique in its 30 minutes, and, since it's been done by every piano legend in the book-- Horowitz, Argerich, Brendel, Kempff, Pollini, Richter, Rubinstein, you name it-- lets a young pianist declare that they're ready to join the big leagues. There are no doubt listeners who compare many versions of this piece and can pick and choose their favorites, but suffice it to say that Yuja's is a fine rendition that equals or betters anyone else of the young generation.



Chopin's Sonata 2 has likewise been tackled by many of the great pianists, and again, Yuja's is a wonderful reading displaying not only technique but a firm understanding of the structure.



The two Ligeti Etudes and Scriabin sonata 2 are more obscure, and, although I have heard no other versions, impress. In the album's download exclusive, Volodos's Turkish March, Yuja draws out voices in the music that were drowned out in Volodos's own recording, Piano Transcriptions / Arcadi Volodos, demonstrating her interpretative ability better than anything else on the CD.



In short, a mix of familiar and relatively unknown from a new talent joining the big leagues."

My breakfast with Yuja

villegem | canada | 08/06/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Back in 2001 we were invited to a home masterclass given by Anton Kuerti, the Canadian pianist. He was hosted by a couple of pianists, H. K. C. and his wife, piano teacher at Mount Royal College in Calgary. The breakfast was supposed to provide her young students the relaxed experience of a one to one with the great man.

After Kuerti inflicted subtle damage to the home Steinway with his own tuning wrench and having confused a couple of OK students, came the turn of Yuja Wang. She had her fingers protected in cute little mittens and was honing a certain confident attitude, amusing for a 13 y old, but that obviously did not go that well with the old man. She started Chopin Sonata No. 2 first movement and after a while was stopped by Kuerti. He then went on to demonstrate his own inability to pedal and to our astonishment pontificated "that Chopin pedaling should not be trusted". Yuja then tried to follow the precious advice and emulate the fossil for a while until he was satisfied that he had her playing level regressed to his.

Then she asked if she could play a Ginastera piece and blasted away with great playing to the audience delight and to the master bittersweet smile. As we left we told her to trust Chopin 's writing rather than an old envious man...



Well: fastforward, she is now at 22, a star, DG recording artist, the perfect package, Chinese, cute and playing fearlessly the piano. Yet this doesn't guarantee her work is a reference. In the video of her Verbier 2009 recital, her high hand position brings a detached, quite cold sound that connects with the keyboard but fails to bring warmth and colors by connecting deeper to the strings. Therefore the repeats of the Chopin second sonata were quite monodimensional, lacking an array of colors. Her legato suffers from this and she tries to compensate by altering tempi and theses carefully crafted effects fall flat: there is little meaning underlying the effects.



She is very musical and talented, sometimes a bit cheesy but never down to the vulgarity of a Lang Lang; yet not much is truly said. So let's hope she'll acquire more colors and content will match the looks in future endeavors. For the moment, 3 stars is as far as I'll go.

"

Perahps the marvelous Yuja Wang will become truly great

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 06/20/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I heard Yuja Wang in Santa Fe three summers ago when she and her teacher at Curtis, Gary Graffman, gave a joint recital. Her technique was astounding, and it immediately became clear that she would be the next Chinese phnom. DG's cover photo makes her look like a minx, but that kind of cheapness is standard nowadays. The real question, as with all the emerging virtuosos from China, is whether she can assimilate the complex performing traditions of Western classical music. already she possesses fire and temperament that grab an audience's attention.



Yundi Li and Lang Lang, two other stars in DG's hugely profitable Chinese stable, struggle with the issue of style, and I admire their integrity in pursuing musical depth when their fans demand only flash. I've heard them in Liszt and Chopin, where both pianists shine, partly because Chopin interpretation has always been highly personal and Liszt is congenial to pure barnstorming. Ms. Wang is as sensitive as her senior compatriots. Her phrasing of lyrical lines is pleasing but sometimes wayward. Rhythms go here and there at whim in the first movement of the Chopin.



Her technique has a lot of the volatility we associate with Martha Argerich -- either one can lapse into banging when they get excited -- and Wang doesn't indulge in vulgarity. (Is she making a statement by recording the same two works by Chopin and Liszt that launched Argerich on DG before she turned twenty?) Another piece of good news is that the Funeral March itself comes across as alive and interesting, no mean feat in music numbed by repetition. The two Ligeti Etudes are pure joy, played cleanly and with utmost musicality. These are major works that more of us should be relishing. Wang's staccato finger work in the Etude no. 10 "Der Zauberlehring" is breathtaking.



I rarely listen to Scriabin and so can make few valid comments. Wang seems perfectly adapted to the composer's shadows and moods, and of course his technical demands are as nothing for her. The Debussian first movement casts a beguiling spell. With the Liszt B minor I was on more solid ground. With Horowitz, Zimerman, and Pollini looming over her -- just to mention three of my favorites -- what does Wang have to add? Happily, she approaches the music seriously, with a grave, lyrical opening, and when the first knuckle-crunching passages appear, she remains poised and assured.



So assured, in fact, that I suddenly found myself raising my estimation another level. Wang has fully conquered this thrice-familiar work. Her phrasing, evenness of tone, natural transitions, and visceral power are comparable to Argerich at this age. I am never completely happy when Argerich becomes reckless and begins to bang. Wang avoids both pitfalls while still keeping dramatic tension alive at every point.



Here are gifts that cannot be taught, only nurtured. I have no doubt, on the strength of the Liszt sonata, that we are witnessing the debut of a pianist who might one day join the great ones. She's astonishing already."